During his tenure as Secretary of Transportation, Rodney E. Slater has made one thing very clear: Safety is the Clinton Administration's top transportation goal. In fact, in almost every speech he gives, Slater goes out of his way to emphasize just how important the issue is.
"We at DOT have said that safety is our North Star," Slater often says, "by which we are guided and by which we are willing to be judged."
With just nine months left before a new Administration takes over, how will the Clinton Administration ultimately be judged when it comes to safety? There certainly has been plenty of good news, and earlier this month the Administration released a slew of statistics showing how much safety improved last year:
- The traffic fatality rate (deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled) hit an all-time low.
- The number of alcohol-related deaths dropped to its lowest mark ever.
- Fatalities in crashes involving large trucks (which had increased during part of the 1990s) decreased by 3 percent.
Aviation tragedies had been on the decline. In 1997, there were just two U.S. airline passenger fatalities; in `98, there were none; and in `99, there were 10. So far this year, however, there have been 83 deaths from plane crashes.
"This continued reduction in traffic fatalities is encouraging news," Slater said. "These statistics show that our commitment to safety is paying huge dividends." Of course, many factors have converged to produce these rosy figures, but observers say that the Clinton Administration deserves some of the credit.
Ricardo Martinez, who served as the administrator at the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from 1994-99, told National Journal that the Administration's crowning achievement has been stressing that safety is an issue for everyone-from the federal government and the states to local communities, businesses, and law enforcement groups.
"In truth, there's no silver bullet. There's not even a Lone Ranger. You have to get everyone involved," he said.
Martinez and others say that the Administration has also used the bully pulpit effectively to express its commitment to safety. It has convinced states and companies of the cost savings that are created by focusing on saving lives. And, perhaps more than any of its predecessors, it has worked with industry groups to promote safety.
In addition, Congress has passed-and President Clinton has signed-legislation that could significantly improve safety. Last year, Congress created the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration as a way of addressing the increasing number of fatalities suffered in truck crashes. Congress also passed the landmark 1998 highway bill, which established incentive programs for the states to enact tougher seat belt and drunken-driving laws. And in 1997, the Administration developed an initiative to promote seat belt use.
But safety groups point to some blemishes on the Administration's record. For starters, seat belt use (despite the Administration's initiative) has remained fairly static since Clinton took office, and it even declined from 70 percent in 1998 to 67 percent last year. Furthermore, even though the traffic fatality rate reached an all-time low last year, it has remained virtually level over the past several years; there were only 126 fewer vehicle deaths in 1999 than in 1998. In addition, deaths from both motorcycle crashes and speed-related accidents increased last year.
"We're stuck in neutral," said Judith Lee Stone, the president of the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. "It's not that there haven't been some good things that have happened in this Administration, but we feel that there's so much more that needs to be done."
Safety advocates also complain about the Administration's proposed ruling this week concerning daily hours of service for truck drivers. Although the rule increases the amount of rest drivers must have, it also increases by two hours the amount of time they can remain behind the wheel. Michael Scippa, executive director of Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways, grumbles that these additional two hours on the road each day will endanger lives. "[The decision] flies in the face of years of research on the correlation between fatigue and fatal truck crashes," he said. "This could very well tarnish the safety record of the Clinton Administration." The trucking industry also objects to the ruling, because the additional rest means that there will have to be more trucks on the road. The decision, however, isn't finalized, and it will be open to public comment.
Others note that the Administration will probably not meet many of the safety goals that it has set for itself. For example, the Administration wants seat belt use to increase to 85 percent by the end of this year, and to 90 percent by 2005. And it wants yearly alcohol-related fatalities (already at an all-time low at 15,800) to drop by more than 30 percent, to 11,000, by 2005. "We will keep pushing, and we will not be satisfied until we hit our goals," said Rosalyn Millman, the NHTSA's acting administrator.
But Stone contends that to reach those goals, or at least to get closer to them, the nation needs to adopt primary seat belt laws, which allow police officers to pull over motorists for not wearing seat belts. Statistics show that states with primary laws have seat belt use rates that are, on average, 15 percentage points higher than those of states with secondary laws, which allow police to fine drivers for not wearing seat belts only if they have been pulled over for committing some other offense. California, for instance, has a primary law, and it has close to a 90 percent usage rate. But as it stands now, only 17 states and the District of Columbia have such laws.
Stone also argues that the nation needs to adopt a .08 blood alcohol content standard for drunken driving. "We know what the solutions are to these problems," she said. "And if we did those things, we would reach these goals."
Safety groups fault the Administration and Congress for not enacting laws that would take away federal highway funds from states that don't adopt the .08 blood alcohol level or increase their seat belt use. Under the 1998 highway law, states can receive incentive funds if they do these things, but safety advocates contend that the incentives have failed. Millie Webb, the president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, notes that only one state has passed .08 since the 1998 law. "We feel like sanctions would have been more effective," she said. Three states have adopted primary seat belt laws since the 1998 highway law was passed.
Martinez blames the states for not passing important safety measures, such as primary seat belt laws. He admits that sanctions are a more effective tool than incentives to get the states to adopt these laws, but he says that they were impossible to pass under a Republican-controlled Congress favoring states' rights.
Many safety organizations think that the Administration's final eight months will heavily influence its safety legacy. Joan Claybrook, the president of Public Citizen and a former administrator of the NHTSA in the 1970s, points to two pending regulatory decisions that, she says, will have an impact on safety: air-bag tests and rollover tests.
In the coming days, the safety administration is expected to issue a rule on air-bag tests. Safety advocates want a standard for air bags that would protect unbelted passengers in crashes involving speeds up to 30 miles per hour. Automakers, however, contend that such a standard would create air bags that are too powerful and could possibly harm children and petite women; they prefer a 25-mile-per-hour standard. Safety groups also want new test standards that would help prevent cars from rolling over. The NHTSA's Millman expects to unveil a consumer information program on rollovers by the end of May.
"All of this bully pulpit stuff is great, but it takes concrete, programmatic efforts to increase highway safety," said Sally Greenberg, the senior product safety counsel at Consumers Union.
The Administration, though, realizes that it still has some time left to forge a lasting legacy on safety. "This President, this Secretary, and this administrator will be working until they kick us out of here," Millman said. "We're going to be working through January, and there will be a lot of good things that will occur."