Traffic crashes are the number one killer of children, adolescents, and young adults in the United States, accounting for more years of potential life lost before age 80 than all other sources of unintentional injury combined. In the last decade, the number of Americans injured in crashes added up to more than the combined resident populations of twenty states.  In September 2001, motor vehicle crashes killed more Americans than the terrorists did on September 11^th.  And, while our government tells us that our roads are safer than ever -- and in many ways they are -- the cold hard fact that seems to escape our collective consciousness is that year after year, about 43,000 people lose their lives on America’s roads -- one every 13 minutes!

Meanwhile, experts have suggested that we could cut this toll in half or better if only we would implement a few proven lifesaving countermeasures that we already know about.  So why don’t we?