Remarks Prepared for Secretary Mineta, Society of Automotive Engineers 2001 Government/Industry Meeting

Norman Y. Mineta, United States Secretary of Transportation
May 15, 2001

On behalf of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, I am delighted to have this opportunity to speak with all of you during this celebration of National Transportation Week. And thank you for inviting me to your 2001 Government and Industry Meeting.

Your theme this week, “Tomorrow’s Technology Together” is about bringing industry and government together, in partnership, to talk about the future of auto safety. I applaud your vision.

First and foremost, safety remains the highest priority for the Department of Transportation and for the Bush Administration. In his 2002 budget, President Bush has asked Congress for $7.3 billion for direct safety funding, an increase of 7.5 percent over last year’s amount.

Second, many of you who have worked with me in the past know my leadership style -- accessibility and accountability. That style of leadership will continue in my duties as Transportation Secretary. You are the experts and I am here to listen and learn from you.

And third, I firmly believe in public/private partnerships, working together on behalf of the American people. We must continue partnering with the auto industry and suppliers, with state and local governments, to move transportation safety forward and to use federal dollars wisely in our efforts to offer safer transportation to every citizen

SAE is one of our key safety partners and that is why I wanted to come today and offer my perspective on the road ahead.

When I accepted this job, it was because I was impressed with the President’s commitment to a strong, vigorous transportation policy for America.

We have some exciting initiatives ahead.

In the next year or so, the Administration will send Congress major legislative proposals to reauthorize many of our key safety statutes.

Our vehicle safety authority will soon expire, as will TEA-21, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. We look forward to hearing your perspectives as we develop our proposals for reauthorization. These bills will be critical to the Department’s success and to the success of our nation’s transportation system.

Motor vehicle crashes make up the lion’s share of the transportation safety problems facing our nation. Despite major progress since federal safety programs were first enacted in the mid 1960’s, traffic deaths are still tragically high.

Highway crashes account for 94 percent of the transportation-related deaths in our country, and 99 percent of the transportation-related injuries. Last year, traffic crashes killed nearly 42,000 people and injured another 3.2 million.

Those statistics show that traffic crashes are a major public health problem. They are the leading cause of death for both children and adults, ages 6 to 33, and represents nearly one-half of all traumatic deaths. This places an enormous burden on health care in the U.S. The direct economic cost to society exceeds $150 billion annually.

Today, I want to alert you to a disturbing development -- a drop-off in the safety progress we have seen in recent years. Our early assessment of year 2000 crash data shows traffic deaths increased slightly last year -- while injuries had only a small decline.

Some important contributors to these reversals include deaths resulting from alcohol-involved traffic crashes, and collisions involving motorcyclists.

This is the kind of development that all of us who care deeply about safety -- in both government and industry -- must follow carefully. As we all know, there is no single magic answer to create a 100 percent safety record in any field.

What we need is a focus on continued improvement – taking every opportunity to look for advances that take us the next step down the road to safer vehicles and safer highways. When we see that progress has slowed, or stopped, we need to all come together to find ways to move us forward again.

Each improvement is critical for protecting vehicle occupants on crowded highways at faster speeds.

We have a number of initiatives underway, including, greater vehicle crash compatibility, advanced vehicle braking, safer child restraints, and better head protection during crashes.

Finally, we are working to support greater international harmonization in both vehicle safety research and regulations.

We are very interested in new technology to improve vehicle crash avoidance, and major research is planned on driver performance issues such as driver workload, driver distraction and driver alertness.

We are also examining intelligent vehicle technologies – including the ability of pre-crash sensors to improve the overall crash avoidance capability of our passenger and commercial vehicles.

Of all the safety issues that confront us, however, there is no greater – and no more important – challenge than finding ways to improve child safety.

Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for children ages 5 to 16-years-old. And 60 percent of children killed in crashes either are not restrained or are improperly restrained. Proper restraint is the single most effective safety measure.

For children ages 4 to 8, booster seats can help prevent injury by making adult-sized belts fit correctly. Unfortunately, studies report usage rate is below 10 percent. We desperately need to improve that statistic – and we are working to do so through a program of public education, expanded law enforcement and through public-private partnerships such as Ford Motor Company’s $30 million program to give away one million booster seats.

Finally, I would like to thank the SAE for your partnership in the effort to build a new 10-year-old test dummy. I am pleased to say that we expect to have a prototype next month, and I know this will be a vital contribution to improving child safety.

The country can be proud of the progress we’ve achieved on safety – and the advances we are seeing every day from industry and from federal, state, and local governments.

Safety belt use now exceeds 70 percent nationally and in some states it even exceeds 80 percent. States are gradually enacting stronger alcohol laws, and are setting, and enforcing .08 BAC laws in their drunk driving laws. Many states are also qualifying to receive safety grants to promote and enforce belt laws.

All of these measures will go a long way to improve safety on our roads and highways. But it will take a strong partnership between government, industry and the American people – all working together to save lives and prevent injury.

Before I close, let me speak to an issue that I know is on the minds of every American – energy. With the price of fuel and electricity rates rising higher and higher there is much cause for concern.

Demand for energy in the U.S. is outstripping supply. That demand will continue to grow dramatically to keep pace with the high-tech economy of the 21st century. And identifying a plan of action for our nation’s long-term energy needs is one of President Bush and Vice President Cheney’s highest domestic priorities.

There are no quick fixes. Our nation has a long-term energy problem that simply cannot be solved overnight. The National Energy Plan, to be released this week, is based on long-term thinking and will take a comprehensive approach to four key energy issues: increasing energy conservation; increasing supply; modernizing infrastructure; and improving quality of life.

Infrastructure improvement is key to meeting our energy demands. Given present trends, demand for natural gas is expected to rise 62 percent by 2020. These demands will require an additional 38,000 miles of pipelines and 225,000 miles of distribution lines to be constructed.

The Energy Task Force’s recommendations will include the consideration of changes to regulatory requirements to encourage this kind of new infrastructure construction. We are looking at streamlining the permit process, but let me assure you that we will not sacrifice the environment for the sake of energy. The point is not to roll back regulations, but to foster a climate that allows for the responsible enhancement of necessary infrastructure.

President Bush believes that conservation must be an integral part of making sure our nation has a reasonable energy policy

In fact, many of the Task Force’s recommended financial incentives go toward conservation and renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, and tax credits that will be offered for vehicles that run on alternative fuels.

These new technologies offer transportation choices that meet our needs for cleaner air, quieter neighborhoods, better health and safety, and more energy efficiency for reduced petroleum dependence.

The Bush Administration is committed to developing a long-term policy that addresses the energy needs of our nation. It will be a policy that promotes dependable, affordable, and environmentally sound production and distribution of energy for the future. It will be a policy that promotes cutting-edge, 21st century technologies to increase energy supplies and uses energy more efficiently and in environmentally responsible ways.

Thank you very much.

Source:  U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)