Jennifer Homendy, the new chair of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, recently called on road designers, public health officials, governors, vehicle manufacturers, transportation providers and communities to share a new vision for ensuring road safety that focuses on the entire system versus individual driver behavior, reports ABC News.

In his opening address to the Governor’s Highway Safety Association, Homendy said the conference theme – Moving Mountains: Forging a New Traffic Safety Landscape – is about “doing great things.” It was referring to achieving the goal of zero fatalities on highways.

Its “safe system approach” aims to overhaul the entire system rather than simply punishing the driver. For example, speed-related crashes continue to increase, but it’s not just drivers who can make the difference.

Homendy questioned whether the design of the roads encouraged high speeds or whether “poorly designed” federal guidelines had led to increased speed limits in the states. She also spoke of states that deprive local authorities of the ability to set lower speed limits and “manufacturers who design vehicles that can exceed 100 kilometers per hour or do not have a speed limiter,” notes the ABC report.

In his speech, Homendy noted how other modes of transportation are seeing a decrease in fatalities – but road fatalities continue to rise.

For example, in 2020 there were 756 fatalities on our country’s railways, including 198 at level crossings, which is a 33% drop from 2019 levels. There were no crash or fatalities on major airlines, there have been nearly 700 in the Navy, 15 in pipelines, and yet 38,680 lives have been lost on U.S. roads – the highest number of fatalities since 2007.

In addition, some 8,700 motor vehicle-related deaths were reported in the first three months of 2021, up 10.5% from the previous year. At the same time, however, the kilometers traveled by vehicles have decreased.

Homendy calls for a new approach to road safety that involves all stakeholders. The NTSB investigates traffic accidents and other transportation incidents, but it has no regulatory authority, ABC News notes.

Originally posted on Fleet