MEDIA ALERT: Each State to Receive Report Card Grading Progress in Passing Model Traffic Safety Laws

-(Business Wire)-January 9, 2009 - Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety:



WHAT:		As state legislatures kick off their 2009 sessions, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety will hold a NEWS CONFERENCE to unveil its “2009 ROADMAP TO STATE HIGHWAY SAFETY LAWS” report grading each state and the District of Columbia on their passage of model traffic safety laws related to teen driving, drunk driving and the required use of seat belts, child booster seats, and motorcycle helmets.

		The report will spotlight best and worst performing states, states making the most and least progress, dangerous legal loopholes in each state that contribute to preventable death and injury, and state-specific data on deaths, injuries and related economic losses.

		In addition, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety will announce a new congressional initiative to spark nationwide uniform legislative action to reduce traffic deaths. Over the past decade, more than 41,000 people were killed and 2.5 million were injured on average each year in motor vehicle crashes at an economic cost of $230 billion – which is 115 deaths, 7000 injuries and $630 million in economic losses every day.

WHEN:		Monday, January 12, 2009, at 12:15pm Eastern Time

WHERE:		National Press Club (Zenger Room), 529 14th St, NW (13th Floor), Washington, DC

WEBCAST:		A free live WEBCAST of news conference and an ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT will be available at: www.saferoads.org. Reporters will be able to email questions.

WHO:		JUDITH LEE STONE (President) and JACQUELINE GILLAN (Vice President) of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, an alliance of consumer, medical, safety and insurance organizations that advances state and federal highway and vehicle safety laws, programs and policies.

		PATTY FRENCH, a Fredericksburg, Virginia, mom who has been fighting for a primary enforcement seat belt law since her son Greg, age 23, died at Christmas 1994 following a 3-1/2 year coma resulting from a car crash in which he was not buckled up. After repeated attempts, the Virginia legislature has failed to pass this lifesaving law.

		CAPTAIN TOM DIDONE, a Montgomery County (Maryland) Police Department commander and long-time highway safety law enforcement leader whose son Ryan, age 15, was killed October 20, 2008, as a passenger in a car driven by a newly-licensed 17-year-old classmate.

		ASSISTANT POLICE CHIEF PATRICK BURKE, Metropolitan Police Department (Washington, DC), who is the leading voice for traffic safety laws and their enforcement in the nation’s capital.

		DR. LINDA DEGUTIS, DrPH, MSN (New Haven, CT): Immediate Past President of the American Public Health Association, Board Member of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, and Associate Professor of Surgery and Public Health at Yale University, whose work has focused on injury prevention and control to save lives and cut health care costs.