‘Implement proven solutions’: National alliance releases road safety report, calls for Wisconsin improvements

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — Despite less people being on the road in 2020, fatal car crashes were up in Wisconsin.

It’s a trend being seen across the country. A new report by the alliance, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, gave Wisconsin a yellow safety rating.

It means the state needs to improve its driving safety laws.

“We are offering this report to spur action to implement proven solutions to keep motorists and road users safe,” Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety President Cathy Chase.

The report looked at several different categories. Wisconsin was given poor ratings for laws on impaired driving and child passenger safety. The state ranked well in distracted driving safety laws.

“The Road Map report covers seat belts, child safety seats and motorcycle helmets,” Chase said. “Nearly 16,000 lives are saved each year on average by their use. Thousands of additional lives would be saved annually if everyone used these basic safety protections.”

A professor from the Medical College of Wisconsin urged lawmakers to pass more common sense safety laws.

“This strategy needs to be applied to reduce the 36,000 preventable deaths annually as well as flatten the curve on the motor vehicle crash fatality rate which is estimated to have spiked by approximately 18 percent over the first six months of 2020,” Medical College of Wisconsin Professor of Emergency Medicine Dr. Stephen Hargarten said.

Eight states earned a green rating including New York and California.