The Trump Administration is rolling out a new initiative to reduce traffic deaths, focused on cracking down on the riskiest behaviors.
“The leading contributors to traffic fatalities tend to be people not wearing seat belts, people driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol – or, increasingly, both – tends to be speeding, and we're seeing a great deal of distraction as well,” said Jonathan Morrison, who leads the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), in an interview.
The plan, called “Pathways to Safer Streets,” includes eight pillars. The first and “cornerstone” pillar involves boosting the role of law enforcement.
“We fully endorse getting back to vigorous, effective traffic enforcement, and we sincerely thank and appreciate our law enforcement community for their great work and the sacrifices they make to keep us all safe,” Morrison said at a conference announcing the initiative.
Other pillars propose better tracking of impaired drivers, pursuing new technology to target excessive speeders and increasing the number of first responders prepared to administer blood to patients after crashes.
Traffic deaths surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, peaking in 2021. Though numbers are trending down, the issue remains a “crisis,” according to NHTSA.
Deaths in 2025 declined 6.7% from the year before, according to data released this month. But nine states saw increases, including four in the Mountain West: Wyoming, New Mexico, Idaho and Colorado.
Cathy Chase, the president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, said her organization supported a number of the administration’s road safety goals, including its promotion of automated speed enforcement and stronger seatbelt laws.
But she would have liked to see the agency continue to promote the advancement and requirement of in-vehicle safety features, such as automatic braking technologies.
The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law mandated NHTSA to require automatic braking on all new passenger vehicles by September 2029, but automakers are pressuring to scrap the rule. Chase worries about the compliance date getting pushed.
“The reason why it's so important is because we have evidence that these technologies can be so effective in reducing crashes,” she said.
Deploying car safety technology, as well as improving road design for cars, as well as pedestrians and cyclists, are goals that were part of the Biden Administration’s road safety strategy absent from the plan.
NHTSA also announced that it's making $1 billion available in the last round of the infrastructure law’s Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program, which has doled out almost $4 billion to local governments and tribes to reduce traffic deaths and injuries. The grant deadline is May 26.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio, KJZZ in Arizona and NPR, with additional support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
