Roadway fatalities in the United States and Virginia are headed in a troubling direction, according to highway safety officials.
“We are not in a good place,” said David Harkey, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Harkey recently spoke at the DRIVE SMART Virginia distracted driving summit held earlier this month in Williamsburg.
Despite decades of progress in reducing fatalities, U.S. crash deaths rose 30 percent from below 33,000 in 2014 to nearly 43,000 in 2022.
In a survey of U.S. drivers, more than half of respondents reported engaging in at least one smartphone-based distraction on most or all trips. Virginia is one of 19 states that have banned drivers from holding electronic devices, a step in the right direction. However, in Virginia, numbers are still too high.
“If you look at the Virginia numbers, they track right alongside national numbers,” he said. “We need to think about why we’re in this position.”
IIHS recently announced a 30×30 goal – to reduce road fatalities in the U.S. by 30 percent by 2030.
“It’s very ambitious,” Harkey continued. “We’re not giving up on the ultimate goal of zero at all. But we need to change the trajectory we’re on, so we set this target first.”
The 30×30 initiative’s focus areas include reducing risky motorist behavior like speeding, impairment, seatbelts and distraction.
Anti-crash systems are being installed in all new vehicles, but Harkey believes it will take 20 years or more for those systems to be in all vehicles in the U.S.
Virginia Farm Bureau, a partner agency of the IIHS, said it look for opportunities to partner on 30×30 to save lives on Virginia’s roads. The goal is to advocate for strong safety policies, spread awareness and build community support.
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Crystal Graham
