It was puzzling to me how very challenging it is to advance safety measures to save lives. Then I realized that there is a MISSING PIECE of the PUZZLE: there is no National Roadway Safety Advocate at the US Department of Transportation.
Then make a comment online to Secretary Sean Duffy (at USDOT). Let him know that you want him to put a person to work as soon as possible who will be a dedicated resource to victims and their families – a National Roadway Safety Advocate.
Submit your Public Commenthere no later than August 20, 2025.
When it comes to changes needed to make our roads safer, who cares more deeply than crash survivors or victim families? The Department of Transportation is asking for the public to submit their comments on what should be included in the 2026 Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill; Secretary Duffy is looking for ideas to make our roads safer.
Let him know that you want victims to have a voice within the Department and that a means to do so has already been proposed by Senator Lujan and Congressman Cohen. The DOT Victim & Survivor Advocate Act would create a National Roadway Safety Advocate to serve as a voice for victims and survivors of roadway crashes and their families — ensuring their perspectives are considered in transportation safety policies.
I know from twelve years of road safety advocacy that this resource is extremely important but is not currently available to assist those who are keenly motivated to bring about change. Let Secretary Duffy know that you want him to put that plan into place.
Submit your Public Commenthere no later than August 20, 2025.
There are too many families like the ones who have told their stories below. They need to be heard. . .
I’m grateful for everyone who takes the time to submit a comment. You can see all comments submitted here. Running list of comments requesting a National Roadway Safety Advocate are here.
Quotes from supporters are availablehere (a list of safety groups and victim/survivors quoted in Senator Lujan & Congressman Cohen press release upon bicameral introduction of the DOT Victim & Survivor Advocate Act).
For the first time in DOT’s history, a nominee for NHTSA Administrator was questioned in a hearing about the agency’s lack of progress in preventing underride deaths. Senator Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) questioned Jonathan Morrison about NHTSA’s failure to consider the benefit of preventing hundreds of pedestrian, bicyclist, and motorcyclist deaths in a pending rulemaking for side underride guards.
According to a 2014 study by the National Transportation Safety Board, about 120 pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists are killed every year under the sides of tractor trailers. A side underride guard that blocks those vulnerable road users from falling under the tandem wheels of trailers would prevent their deaths.
But a pending NHTSA rulemaking on side underride guards neglected to count a single vulnerable road user’s death in the all-important cost-benefit analysis.
Senator Lujan: Another issue that I care about deeply is ensuring that trucks have side underride guards to prevent cars, pedestrians, and cyclists from being crushed underneath. . . . According to NHTSA, the cost of installing side underride guards exceeds the benefits. Unfortunately, to reach this estimate, NHTSA makes assumptions in their cost benefit analysis that excludes whole categories of preventable deaths of vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.
Senator Lujan: I don’t understand that. If it’s going to be studied, it should be studied. And then an answer should result based on whatever the research is.
Senator Lujan: Yes, or no? Will you commit to counting pedestrians and bicyclists as preventable deaths for road users in the cost benefit analysis for any future rulemaking on side underride guards?
Jonathan Morrison: I will work with the economists within NHTSA to make sure that everything appropriate is being considered. I’m not familiar with that particular study.
Well, that would be refreshing. . . to have everything appropriate considered by the federal regulator whose mission it is to reduce roadway injuries and deaths. And that includes underride.
If pedestrian, bicyclist, and motorcyclist deaths had been included in the cost-benefit analysis as they should have been, the annual number of deaths side underride guards could prevent would have been estimated to be at least 137. Under those circumstances, the benefits of regulation would have outweighed or been equal to the costs, and the agency would have mandated side underride guards.
Here’s the clip from the hearing (1:02:02 in the video of the Senate Commerce hearing on July 16, 2025):
Senator Lujan questions NHTSA Administrator nominee Jonathan Morrison on underride
