EXHIBIT 35 STATEMENT PREPARED BY REX M. WHITTON, FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATOR, BUREAU OF PUBLIC ROADS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF Commerce Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: I am here this morning to give you a report on the highway safety programs of the Bureau of Public Roads. In a very real sense the entire program of the Bureau of Public Roads is oriented to improved highway safety. This is true because to a large degree the improvement of traffic safety and of traffic service are primary objectives of the Bureau and play a vital part in the planning, location, design, construction, and maintenance of highways. Improvement of traffic safety and of traffic service go hand in hand and cannot be pursued as if they were altogether separate entities. Many of our known, effective traffic safety measures also reduce traffic congestion and increase street or highway capacity. This can be said equally well the other way around--that measures which increase capacity and reduce congestion also improve safety. For many years the State highway organizations, in cooperation with the Bureau, have been incorporating certain measures into highways which contribute substantially to driving safety. Some of the measures include centerline striping and edge lines; no-passing zone marking, bridge, lane, and shoulder widening; safe-speed marking, elimination of railroad and highway grade crossings; increased sight distances on horizontal or vertical curves; extensive use of guardrails, reflective shoulder markings and many other These measures have contributed substantially to reducing the accident death rate from 16.7 persons killed per 100 million vehicle miles in 1934 to 5.7 in 1964. innovations. I would like to stress that we are seeking to improve the safety and service of a highway transportation system; a system that is composed of three elements which are in close interaction. These are the vehicle, the driver, and the roadway--including everything on and along it. And I emphasize that at least as important as separate attention to each of these three elements, is attention to their In the system, the whole is greater than the interaction. sum of its parts. Evidence of a systems approach to the total highway accident situation today is the accident experience on completed sections of the Interstate Highway System, where this approach to highway safety has been employed to the greatest degree. Studies by the Bureau of actual operations on completed sections of the Interstate show that they have a fatality rate of 2.8 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles of travel compared with a rate of 9.7 on older highways in the same traffic corridors. According to our estimates, travel on the Interstate System resulted in saving 3,500 lives last year and will save 8,000 lives a year when completed in 1972. This means that for every 5 miles of Interstate System completed, one life a year is saved. In a moment I would like to discuss what can be done, and what is being done, to reduce the possibilities and consequences of accidents on the rest of the Nation's 3-1/2 million miles of streets and highways which will continue to carry nearly 80 percent of the Nation's traffic when the Interstate System is completed. First, however, I would like to make clear the Bureau's position with regard to total needs for optimum highway safety. We know programs firmly rooted in research, and supported by demonstration projects must be directed to all elements in the highway transportation system, including the road, the vehicle and the driver. To strengthen the contribution of the Bureau of Public Roads in highway safety and to enable the Bureau to give special attention to safety programs, the Office of Highway Safety was created within the Bureau in December 1961. Briefly stated, it is the function of the Office of Highway Safety to work for the application of highway safety measures already known to be effective, and to apply new knowledge as it is acquired by research and experience. Several programs will illustrate the scope of the Bureau's activities in this field. In March of last year President Johnson directed that an accelerated attack on highway accidents be undertaken within the Federal-aid highway program and the resources of the Highway Trust Fund. As a result, the Bureau has instituted a program of spot improvement of high accident locations. It is well known that certain locations or sections of highways have a very high accident experience while other sections and locations are relatively free of accidents. These sections of highways are priority targets for accident prevention through highway and traffic engineering. Many such locations are well known today, but their correction is being deferred. neglect. This is not done through ignorance or It is because the route sections in which they are included are scheduled for improvement, on the basis of general traffic needs, a year from now - or two, or more. Our program is intended to have such accident inducing sections made safe at an earlier date than they would be on a normal schedule. A large number of before-and-after case studies of improvements which have eliminated accident inducing features of high accident locations have been made and widely disseminated. Such studies provide conclusive evidence of measurable, and often dramatic reductions in accidents. During the first year of this program, 33 States have programed 182 safety improvement projects of this type on the ABC Federal-aid highway systems at a total cost of $42 million and commitment of $21 million in Federal-aid highway funds. A copy of the Bureau's detailed report on high accident location safety improvements from April 15, 1964, to December 31, 1964, is included with this statement for examination by the committee. Related to the spot improvement program is the application of traffic engineering techniques in urban areas where the number of fatal and serious injury accidents are less, but where the total number of accidents is far greater than on rural highways. |