Over the last decade, drunk driving fatalities have declined more than 17 percent and seat belt usage is now at 67 percent, up from 15 percent. I am proud of our progress on highway safety. But much more remains to be done because the fatalities have leveled off for the past two years, further emphasizing the need for us to redouble our safety efforts. We, as a nation, cannot and should not accept 40,000 fatalities and 3 million injuries a year caused by highway accidents. When a plane crashes and kills people, every news show in the country reports it.
People are concerned, and that's appropriate.
Last year, we lost 262 lives through seven major airline crashes. Yet on our highways, we lost 40,000 lives, and it doesn't make page one. If we framed the tragedy that we see on our highways in this context, I believe most Americans and their state elected officials would be outraged at the senseless slaughter of our fellow citizens on our highways. They are fatalities that we accept too easily. As we drive past a terrible highway crash, we seem numb to the tragedy, believing that it could not happen to us.