A report released by the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety suggests that Arizona is falling behind with laws for driver and passenger safety.
Arizona is one of 11 states who received a Red rating in the 2019 Roadmap of State Highway Safety Laws report, meaning we “fall dangerously behind in adoption of Advocates’ recommended optimal laws”.
Only six states received a Green rating, showing significant advancement in adopting recommended laws.
FULL SECTION: Operation Safe Roads
According to the report, advocates suggest Arizona have the following highway safety laws:
- Primary enforcement seat belt laws (front and back)
- All-rider motorcycle helmet law
- Rear-facing through age 2 law
- Booster seat law
- Minimum age 16 for learner’s permit (GDL)
- Stronger supervised driving requirement (GDL)
- Nighttime restriction (GDL)
- Passenger restriction (GDL)
- Age 18 unrestricted license (GDL)
- All-driver text messaging restriction
- Cell phone restriction (GDL)
Arizona had 8,631 crash fatalities in the last 10 years, including 1,000 in 2017 alone, the study shows.
Our state has an annual economic cost due to vehicle crashes of $4.183 billion, they report.
The 57-page study also looked at the total number of crashes in all states, the number of crashes involving distracted or impaired drivers, motorcyclists, unrestrained passengers and more. It also has a section on concerns about driverless vehicles.
