MDOT Director Kirk Steudle, who is also chairman of the AASHTO Standing Committee on Highway Safety, testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works committee on April 14, 2010, emphasizing the importance of highway safety.
As part of its reauthorization recommendations, AASHTO recommends a number of safety-related congressional actions:

1. National Agenda on Highway Safety: Congress should adopt a national goal of reducing traffic deaths by half over two decades.
2. Highway Safety Funding: Congress should increase the flexibility and level of funding for all safety pro-grams equal to increases in the other core programs’ funding to meet the national safety goal.
3. Strategic Highway Safety Plan Continuation: Congress should continue the requirement that states develop and implement Strategic Highway Safety Plans consistent with their long-range transportation planning and short-range programming processes.
4. Highway Safety Data Collection and Sharing: AASHTO is requesting Congress provide $20 million per year to enhance NHTSA’s State Data System.
5. Highway Safety Laws and Adjudication: Congress should support a national effort, led by NHTSA, to develop and recommend model laws and best practices to the states on ways to drive down traffic deaths, including rigorous enforcement and adjudication of those laws.
6. Safety Improvement in Vehicles: Congress should encourage more expeditious deployment of technic-al safety improvements in vehicles through federal incentives, and regulatory and research-and-development initiatives.
7. Highway Safety Research, Development, and Technology: Congress should increase funding for safety research, development, and technology – and expand the coordination among research entities.
8. Safety Improvement in Drivers: Congress should provide $5 million to modernize the Commercial Driver Licensing Information System. In addition, $14 million in General Fund support is needed for the De-partment of Homeland Security for the information hub to allow motor-vehicle agencies to implement a “One Driver, One License” system.

For more information, read Director Steudle’s complete testimony, and take a look at AASHTO’s complete reauthorization recommendations.