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Strategic Objective
IMPROVE SAFETY OF TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM
Strategic Objective
Overview
In 2011, 34,414 people died and more than 2.2 million people were injured in transportation-related crashes and accidents, according to U.S. DOT national Transportation Statistics. Motor vehicle crashes caused 32,367 fatalities, or 94 percent of the total, even though the rate of fatalities per hundred million miles of travel was the lowest ever recorded in the United States. Distracted driving was a contributing factor in at least 3,331 fatal crashes. Another 1, 213 people died in rail, air, and transit accidents. We will use our safety programs and regulations for automobiles, airplanes, railroads, trucks, motorcoaches, pipelines, and hazardous materials as effectively as possible to reduce crashes, fatalities, and injuries, and will expand safety oversight to public transit. We will continue to direct federal resources to address the most serious safety risks and implement program reforms that will advance our safety mission. Between 2001 and 2010, an average of 13 people in the United States died every year in incidents related to the transportation of hazardous material—a rate of one death for every 21 billion ton-miles of hazardous material moved. In addition to causing deaths and injuries, hazardous material transportation incidents disrupt communities when people are evacuated from their homes, business activity is curtailed, and transportation services are interrupted. We will continue to develop and encourage the use of safety tools - such as improved data collection, risk management practices, and incident response planning - to prevent, mitigate, and respond to hazardous material transportation accidents.
Read Less...Progress Update
The U.S. has experienced an historic level of safety in all modes of transportation. Driving fatalities have dropped dramatically over the past two decades. U.S. commercial aviation is one of the safest in the world. Fatalities in all modes of transportation, including rail, transit and the movement of hazardous materials through pipelines, have decreased over the past decade.
The challenge for DOT is to maintain these historic levels of safety in the face of resource limitations, growth in travel and transport demand, new economic needs, and new technologies.
In 2015, DOT met nine out of twelve safety goals.
- While highway fatalities decreased between 2013 and 2014, they did not decrease to the amount needed to meet the DOT goal set for 2014.
- Similarly, bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities decreased between 2013 and 2014, but not enough to meet the goal.
- Preliminary data indicate that we will not meet the goal for large truck and bus fatalities in FY 2014.
This year's strategic review highlighted a few emerging concerns:
- Preliminary estimates indicate that highway fatalities and non-vehicle
- DOT needs better data in order to develop risk-based strategies;
- The growth of domestic oil production has challenged DOT to improve intermodal analysis and coordination; and
- Unmanned Aircraft Systems require complex regulatory and control responses.