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Chief State Transportation Official Meets with GHSA Leadership

Commitment to Safety, Speeding Among Issues Discussed

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 7, 2006 Jonathan Adkins
202-789-0942
jadkins@ghsa.org

Washington, DC—Harold Linnenkohl, President of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), met with the Executive Board of the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) during a session on Monday. AASHTO represents the state departments of transportation while GHSA represents the state highway safety agencies.

Harold Linnenkohl, AASHTO and Chris Murphy, GHSA
Left to right: AASHTO President Harold Linnenkohl and Chris Murphy, Vice Chair of GHSA.

President Linnenkohl stressed his organization’s commitment to working with GHSA members to implement the new highway authorization and to continue AASHTO’s focus on safety. He said, “In my opinion, safety is the number one transportation issue. I find the number of deaths on our roadways to simply be unacceptable.” Chris Murphy, Vice Chair of GHSA, commended AASHTO’s leadership in safety by saying, “AASHTO is a key partner in our efforts to reduce traffic fatalities and injuries. We are delighted to be working so closely with them, particularly as states develop strategic highway safety plans.”

The issue of how to reduce speeding-related fatalities received much attention during the discussion. Speeding-related deaths account for approximately a third of all traffic fatalities. Tony Kane, AASHTO’s Director of Engineering and Technical Services, stated, “Automated enforcement could be the silver bullet solution in dealing with speeding and red-right running. This is based on the success of cameras in Europe and Australia.”  Murphy of GHSA added, “Addressing those crashes must be a national traffic safety priority on par with occupant protection and impaired driving. Speeding-related crashes are not just state and local problems but rather deserve attention by all levels of government. We look forward to future GHSA-AASHTO efforts to address this pervasive problem.”

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The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) is the nonprofit association representing the highway safety agencies of states, territories, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Indian Nation. Its members are appointed by their Governors to administer federal and state highway safety funds and implement state highway safety plans. For more information, contact GHSA at (202) 789-0942 or visit www.ghsa.org.

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