Safety is President Clinton's top transportation priority and the Department of Transportation is committed to saving lives. It remains the North Star guiding everything we do. Highway-rail crossing deaths are at a record low, down 58 percent from 1988. We at DOT are not resting. We are building.
Safety is a very timely subject.
This coming weekend, the Fourth of July holiday, is one of the heaviest driving periods of the year. Given the number of crashes at intersections on the State Farm list, many of those collisions and even some deaths during the holiday weekend may come at places you've highlighted. We at DOT have given special attention to intersection safety since the Highway Safety Act of 1973. We have seen positive results through a concentration on enforcement, education, and engineering. The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, known as TEA-21, passed just one year ago.