Senator SIMPSON. I can see you had better not have.

[Laughter.]

Senator SIMPSON. Thank you.

Senator RIBICOFF. Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.

Now, Mr. Whitton. If you have other duties to perform, Mr. Secretary, you are certainly free to go and I want to thank you for coming here.

Secretary CONNOR. Thank you very much, I have enjoyed it.

STATEMENT OF REX WHITTON, FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATOR, BUREAU OF PUBLIC ROADS; ACCOMPANIED BY JAMES K. WILLIAMS, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF HIGHWAY SAFETY; AND ROBERT F. BAKER, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

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

interaction.

In the system, the whole is greater than the

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

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