VERITY Now Statement on Amendment #1296

VERITY Now is concerned about an amendment proposed for the initial FY 2024 appropriations minibus package. This amendment would remove the salary of the current Acting Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). If this amendment is successful, Congress would deprive NHTSA of its leadership at a critical time and set a precedent that ultimately does not advance the core mission of the agency – road safety.

Vehicle safety is a serious issue. Approximately 100 people die on America’s roads every day, and many more are seriously injured.  Women are disproportionately impacted, as they are 73% more likely to suffer serious injury and 9-28% more likely to die in a crash.  These crashes leave broken families and economic devastation in their wake. VERITY Now’s mission is to improve crash testing standards to protect every body in a crash equally, regardless of gender. We estimate that equal crash testing could save over 1000 lives per year. 

While we have been disappointed in the past that NHTSA has not moved more quickly to adopt equal crash tests and dummies, stakeholders now acknowledge that equal crash testing is our shared goal.  This amendment risks slowing the progress we’ve all made toward realizing that vision, and every day we lose to procedural hurdles equals lives lost on our roads.