I am pleased to present the FY 2006 budget request for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The budget request of $696.4 million is focused on results, and supports programs that provide both behavioral and vehicle safety initiatives to reduce highway fatalities and injuries on our nation’s roadways. Not only is this human toll costly, but also associated traffic-related health care and other economic costs to our citizens amount to over $231 billion annually. Our budget investment seeks to reduce both human and economic costs.

When President Bush took office in January 2001, he established a management agenda to create a results-oriented Federal government that actively promotes innovation and competition. Over the past four years NHTSA has taken this responsibility seriously. The budget request continues and enhances the achievements made across all of these management initiative areas. In addition, rigorous performance goals and standards have been set, and the budget request enables continued progress across all traffic safety areas, especially as related to the Secretary’s top transportation priority—achieving no more than 1.0 fatality per 100 Million Vehicle Miles Traveled (MVMT) by the end of 2008.

NHTSA is proud to report that for 2003, the overall fatality rate was reduced to 1.48 per 100 MVMT, and 1.20 for passenger vehicles. Additionally, in 2003, the Nation experienced the largest decrease in Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) ≥ 0.08 fatalities since 1999. Also, during 2004, seat belt usage increased to a record 80 percent. This means that over 15,000 lives are now being saved through the use of safety belts. Every percentage point increase in safety belt usage yields an additional 270 lives saved each year, and $800 million in costs saved. NHTSA also recently completed a study that estimates that as many as 329,000 lives have been saved from 1960-2002 as a result of vehicle safety technologies and behavioral modifications, and this number is increasing annually.

These are significant gains in the area of traffic safety, but despite the improvements made, much more still needs to be done. The leading cause of death for individuals in the United States for Americans aged 3 through 33 is motor vehicle traffic crashes. In 2003, of the estimated 6.3 million police-reported crashes, 38,252 were fatal crashes, with 42,643 fatalities and 2.9 million injuries. This is about 117 fatalities per day, or one fatality every 12 minutes. Motorcycle ridership has increased dramatically in the U.S., and fatalities related to motorcycles continued to increase for the sixth consecutive year. The death rate for motorcycles is 32 times that of passenger vehicles.

To address these continuing problems, NHTSA is proposing its budget request of $696.4 million structured with three strategic safety goals in mind: Behavioral Safety, Vehicle Safety, and Environmental Stewardship.

BEHAVIORAL SAFETY:
Behavioral Safety programs and initiatives are requested at a level of $539.4 million, an increase of $17.85 million over FY 2005. Our emphasis is to study and change risk-taking behavior on the roadways and seek to increase responsible driving. Among the worst behaviors contributing to fatalities and injuries are the failures to use safety belts, driving while impaired, and speeding. NHTSA will also continue to lead the Department’s efforts regarding Emergency Medical Services (EMS) activities and the newly legislated E-911 communications strategy.

In 56 percent of the cases where passenger vehicle occupants were killed, the individuals were not wearing their safety belts. Nearly half of those would have lived had their safety belts been fastened. Despite the reduction in BAC ≥ 0.08 fatalities, there were still 17,013 deaths related to alcohol (BAC ≥ 0.01), and 14,630 in which drivers or non-occupants were legally intoxicated BAC ≥ 0.08. This is about 47 fatalities per day. Large numbers of fatalities are still occurring due to speeding and other distracted driving. In many of these cases, these deaths can be avoided with continued improvements to technologies and improvements in driver behavior.

The passage and enforcement of strong safety belt and impaired driving laws has significantly reduced fatalities. It is estimated that an additional 1,275 lives can be saved next year if the remaining 29 States pass primary safety belt laws and enforce them. During FY 2006, NHTSA plans to work more closely with the States and, consistent with SAFETEA; propose additional incentives to improve safety belt use and to reduce fatalities related to impaired driving. NHTSA also recognizes that effective advertising through paid media greatly contributes to the public’s knowledge of and attention to these problems. Therefore, the highly successful Click It or Ticket and You Drink & Drive, You Lose national campaigns will continue in FY 2006.

VEHICLE SAFETY:
Vehicle Safety programs and initiatives are requested at a level of $154.9 million for FY 2006, an increase of $4.84 million over FY 2005. NHTSA will assure that vehicles on our roadways meet the highest safety standards to prevent crashes from occurring and to maximize occupant safety when crashes do occur. This two-pronged strategy is essential to saving lives and preventing injuries. NHTSA will conduct research and crash testing focused on crash avoidance and crash worthiness of vehicles. NHTSA will continue to initiate regulatory activities when benefits outweigh the cost, ensure enforcement of vehicle safety standards, investigate safety defects, and monitor vehicle recalls. NHTSA will also improve and expand safety information for the public, including crash test results, i.e. star ratings and child safety seat testing, and enhance the dissemination of this information and other safety messages through promotion of and continued work on our redesigned website, www.safercar.gov.

Finally, having good data on motor vehicle crashes and fatalities is critical to understanding and evaluating safety problems, and assessment of proposed and enacted solutions. Therefore, with the completion of our Integrated Project Team study of traffic data last year, NHTSA has a roadmap to begin making necessary improvements in traffic records data and systems. This includes emphasis on improvements at the State level. Under the Behavioral Safety area we propose a new State grant program to further improve State traffic records data and systems. Additionally, NHTSA has started development of the recently funded Fast-FARS system, which will provide more timely fatality data to assess progress in meeting traffic safety goals

ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP:
Environmental Stewardship programs and initiatives are requested at a level of $2.028 million for FY 2006, an increase of $71,000 over FY 2005. This includes the necessary analysis of and reforms to the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program, which addresses the National goals of improving fuel economy, ensuring energy security, and reducing our dependence on oil while maintaining safety and a robust economy.

CONCLUSION:
Funding NHTSA at the FY 2006 budget request level of $696.4 million will lead to safer motor vehicles and reduced fatalities on our Nation’s highways.