A new campaign by the federal administration sees transportation officials joining hands with major businesses as well as non profit organizations with a singular goal in mind – to reduce the number of people killed in auto accidents every year.
The burgeoning number of people being killed in car accidents in Georgia and around the United States every year has raised alarm in transportation safety circles. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has made it one of his administration’s top priorities to reduce the number of deaths that occur in auto accidents every year. Auto accident wrongful death numbers continue to rise with the number of fatalities in pedestrian and bicycle accidents spiking at an especially alarming rate.
In response, the Department of Transportation has launched a new campaign called “Call to Action” with the goal of reducing these fatality statistics. The campaign has called on parties from all walks of society from non profits and traffic safety organizations to businesses and automakers to join hands with the federal administration to achieve this target.
According to the Transportation Secretary, the campaign will include a number of commitments as well as initiatives to help reduce the number of people being killed in preventable traffic accidents. These include collaborations in design that would make pedestrian crosswalks safer for the nation’s school children, and commitments by rideshare companies to install seat belt alert systems in all of their fleet share vehicles. Big money is being pumped into the campaign. Uber, for instance, has confirmed that it will be donating half a million dollars towards an initiative that distributes free rides to persons who are too impaired to drive, thereby reducing their risks of being involved in a drunk driving accident. Other initiatives include a collaboration between the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to promote strategies that can reduce the risk of fatal accidents.
The Department of Transportation can do only so much to help reduce the number of people being killed in car accidents every year. Many deaths, for instance, occur during the “golden hour” which is the 60 minutes after a serious accident occurs. During this window, it is imperative that the person receive immediate life-saving critical care at a specialty center in order to increase his chances of survival. Unfortunately, catastrophic auto accidents often occur in areas that are not very closely located to a critical care facility, which means that victims often die of their injuries before they can get the emergency care they require. These are not issues that the Transportation Secretary or the Transportation Department can fix on their own. They will require a deeper collaboration with other federal agencies, including those that are responsible for healthcare.
The Atlanta car crash attorneys at Katz Personal Injury Lawyers are dedicated to the representation of persons injured in car accidents in the metro Atlanta region and across Georgia. If you or a loved one have suffered injuries in a car accident, talk to a lawyer at our firm and determine if you have legal options to a claim for damages. You may be eligible for compensation that includes medical expenses, lost income and other types of damages. Talk to an attorney at our firm and discuss your case.