September 26, 2024
Memo in support of California Senate Bill 961
As an alliance of global road safety and health organizations from academia, practitioners, and philanthropies, the Child Health Initiative provides a voice for the specific needs and rights of children within transportation and urban mobility policymaking. We are committed to saving lives through evidence-based best practices to lower risks for every child. This is why we support California Senate Bill 961, which will require installation of passive intelligent speed assistance (ISA) on vehicles manufactured or sold in California from 2030 onward.
Children are particularly vulnerable to the fatal effects of high speeds. For a child, being hit at 30 mph risks their life on a coin toss, with a 50/50 chance of survival, but at 20 mph there is a 90% chance at life.
Put simply, ISA technology works. Globally, the data supporting the life-saving potential of ISA is so strong that Europe has already required it for all new passenger cars and commercial vehicles. The European Transport Safety Council estimated that deaths on roads in the EU will go down by 20% thanks to ISA. In the US, this bill will help us see the same success by helping to change the social norm around speeding, responsible for over a third of our road traffic fatalities.
Traffic deaths and injuries are a major, preventable public health problem. Across the state, the latest traffic fatalities data showed a 7.6% rise in just a year, with pedestrians and bicyclists disproportionally impacted. Traffic violence costs the California State economy at least $166 billion in societal harm, including $41.1 billion in economic costs and $124.5 billion in quality-of-life costs.
This bill can play a crucial role in helping the United States meet the goal to halve road deaths and injuries by 2030, set by the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety.
California can lead the whole US by signing SB961b into law. We respectfully urge you to sign the Senate Bill 961 and to be a leader nationally and globally for making our vehicles safer.
Sincerely
Saul Billingsley, FIA Foundation Executive Director
On behalf of Child Health Initiative partners
CC: The Honorable Gavin Newsom, Governor of California Governor and James Hacker, Deputy Cabinet Secretary at Office of the Governor
