Road Safe America seeks national observance of special day focusing on highway safety
Drive Safer Sunday proposed for Sunday after Thanksgiving yearly
Contact:
Erica Stephens
770-845-3663
ATLANTA – Seeking to call attention to the need for everyone on America's roads and highways to drive more safely, Road Safe America today announced an initiative to establish Drive Safer Sunday as a national observance every year on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
"The death of almost 43,000 people a year in more than 6 million highway crashes in America has been called an epidemic by U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, and rightly so," said Stephen C. Owings of Atlanta, whose son, Cullum, was killed in 2002 when his car was crushed from behind by a tractor-trailer truck on cruise control at 8 miles per hour over the posted speed limit.. "At Road Safe America, we believe it's time to set aside a special day of the year for everyone on our highways and roadways to focus simply on driving more safely."
Drive Safer Sunday is planned eventually to spawn a major national public safety campaign that can be embraced in many ways by numerous local, state and national non-profit organizations, civic, business and social clubs around the nation.
Owings said Road Safe America, a non-profit organization his family founded after Cullum's death, is establishing the Sunday after Thanksgiving every year to be observed as Drive Safer Sunday nationally because that's the busiest highway traffic day of the year – and also the day their son was killed while driving back to college in Virginia.
Road Safe America wants national regulations written to require activation of speed governors on trucks over 10 wheels to limit their top speed to 65 miles per hour, but the Owings believe that observance of Drive Safer Sunday will draw attention to the need for drivers of all vehicles to focus on safer driving. "And if we observe Drive Safer Sunday as a nation annually, driving safer might even become a habit," said Owings.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
With the help of the news media, Road Safe America hopes to raise public awareness about Drive Safer Sunday and to start a national movement in which people urge each other to drive safer on Sunday, November 26, this year.
Road Safe America is also urging other actions:
- Everyone should visit www.roadsafeamerica.org to learn more about Drive Safer Sunday and to study the list of safe driving tips on the site.
- The administrations of America's colleges and universities should use Drive Safer Sunday to launch campus-wide educational campaigns to urge students returning to school after the Thanksgiving holiday to be especially careful on the nation's highways.
- Sororities and fraternities on college and university campuses all over America should observe the weeks before Drive Safer Sunday as an opportunity to openly discuss the need for their members and pledges to drive more safely always, but especially on Drive Safer Sunday this year and every year.
- National trucking firms should use the observance of Drive Safer Sunday to alert their drivers to be especially focused on safe driving on the heaviest traffic day of the year, and to talk up the importance of the day on their CB radios and in truck stops across the nation.
- America's clergy can mention Drive Safer Sunday in prayers or sermons a week before the observance and also on the day itself, especially asking for safe travels for those who will be on the roads returning from family gatherings or returning to school.
- Law enforcement personnel who routinely predict the number of highway deaths over the Thanksgiving weekend can now add, "And remember, Sunday is Drive Safer Sunday , so we want you to do just that."
- Public schools can get behind the campaign, with administrators and teachers urging children to tell their parents to "Drive Safer Sunday" before they break for the holiday.
WHY IT IS NEEDED
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration is projecting the following changes in highway accident statistics between 2003 and 2004:
• Fatalities from large truck crashes increased slightly from 4,986 to 5,169 in 2004.
• Passenger car occupant fatalities declined by 2.4 percent and pickup deaths dropped 2.0 percent, while sport utility vehicle (SUV) deaths rose 4.9 percent.
• Injuries dropped from 2.9 million to 2.8 million, a decline of 4.6 percent.
• Overall alcohol-related fatalities dropped 2.1 percent from 17,013 to 16,654. At positive blood alcohol content (BAC) levels under .08, fatalities dropped 9.8 percent.
• In 2004, 56 percent of occupants killed in passenger vehicles were not wearing safety belts, a rate that was unchanged.
• The number of fatal crashes involving young drivers (16-20) increased slightly (from 7,353 in 2003 to 7,405).