Congress Works to Make Driving Safer in the US

For as long as cars have been on the road, Congress has been involved in making it safer for drivers around the country.

While the early days of the auto industry gave us vehicles that drove slowly and without any of the safety gear we see now, vehicles have evolved significantly. Marry the evolution of vehicles and the increased number of drives on the road, which is more than ever before, and you can understand why Congress needs to be working to make driving safer for all of us.

Four Bills Were Introduced with Safety in Mind

In July of 2020, bills were introduced to Congress to make driving safer for you and the other drivers around you. Let’s take a brief look at them.

Promoting Auto Recalls Toward Safety (PARTS) Act

The name appears to have been made to fit the acronym, but the PARTS Act was created by Congress to increase the response to a recall and allow a recall across many manufacturers to be enacted. This is a specific response to the infamous Takata airbag recall that impacted nearly every automaker in the world.

Early Warning Reporting Systems Improvement Act

The second bill allows for reports of vehicular injuries and deaths that are directly tied to the safety of vehicles to be written in a way that they can be read by the general public. This act also requires automakers to provide more information about these incidents and requires the NHTSA to make the information publicly available.

Stay Aware For Everyone (SAFE) Act

The cleverness of making the names of these Congressional acts fit the acronyms is amazing. That said, the SAFE Act was created to reduce distracted driving. While most drivers aren’t going to change their habits, the current level of driver assistance technologies can be more available to drivers. This act is also in place to study how drivers respond to technology to see if they are becoming more lackadaisical and potentially causing more accidents by being dependent upon these technologies.

Modernizing Seat Back Safety Act

Seat backs have become part of the problem in many vehicles. In fact, this part of the vehicle has failed many times and if it hadn’t thousands of fatalities might have been prevented. This act by Congress requires the NHTSA to update the standards for seat back integrity to make them safer and much better than they are right now. This will help to reduce the number of accidents that turn fatal simply because the seatback failed to protect the occupant.

More Congress Action for Safer Driving is Expected

There are arguments for and against more technology, more safety, and more automation in our vehicles. Will we reach a point when we can simply trust our cars to drive us to where we want to go without any involvement on our behalf or will we move backward and make it impossible to use a cell phone, eat a meal, or monitor children while driving? Congress has several members working feverishly to make sure we stay safer on the roads than ever before.