The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) this week is running its first-ever Our Roads, Our Safety Week, a safety-observance event dedicated to educating all road users on sharing the road safely with large trucks and buses.

Our Roads, Our Safety Week runs through May 13 and aims to raise awareness and share actionable information on improving roadway safety, supporting the agency’s National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS) goal of zero roadway fatalities. 

Each day of the safety week is dedicated to distinct topics covering safer roads, safer people, safer vehicles, and safer speeds. This aspect of the event aligns with the NRSS’s Safe System Approach.

May 11: Facebook Livestreaming Event

The capstone of the week comes on Thursday, May 11, when FMCSA will host a stakeholder event— to be livestreamed on Facebook Live— that will highlight the agency’s and the commercial motor vehicle industry’s commitments to the NRSS.

FMCSA said attendees of the streamed event will learn about specific activities and actions that road-use stakeholders are taking to help reach zero deaths on our nation’s roadways. 

Other Safety Week highlights include: 

• Announcement of a new CMV driver-focused outreach campaign dedicated to reducing or eliminating speeding on our roads.

• Unveiling of a new Our Roads, Our Safety public awareness campaign designed to increase awareness and promote safe driving practices among all road users.

“FMCSA is committed to safety,” said FMCSA Administrator Robin Hutcheson. “We have a responsibility to educate all road users on how to safely share the road with buses, 18-wheelers, and other commercial motor vehicles. Together, we can make a difference in reducing the number of crashes, injuries, and fatalities involving large trucks and buses.”

Highlights of DOT Road-Safety Strategy

The Department of Transportation announced the rollout of the NRSS in January 2022, saying it is “a roadmap for addressing the national crisis in roadway fatalities and serious injuries.” DOT stated the impetus for this comprehensive strategy is that “almost 95% of the nation’s transportation deaths occur on its streets, roads, and highways.”

In addition, even though the number of annual roadway fatalities declined for many years, per DOT, “that progress plateaued over the last decade and now, alarmingly, fatalities have risen during the pandemic.”

According to DOT, NRSS provides “concrete steps that the department will take to address this crisis systemically and prevent these tragic and avoidable deaths and serious injuries… the NRSS is the first step in working toward an ambitious long-term goal of reaching zero roadway fatalities.”

Key actions of the NRSS will include:

• Working with states and local road owners to build and maintain safer roadway through efforts such as updates to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices; a Complete Streets Initiative to provide technical assistance to communities of all sizes, and speed limit setting. 

• Leveraging technology to improve the safety of motor vehicles on roadways, including rulemaking on automatic emergency braking (AEB) and pedestrian automatic emergency braking, and updates to the New Car Assessment Program.

• Investing in road safety through funding in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, including a new $6 billion Safe Streets and Roads for All program; hundreds of millions for behavioral research and interventions, and $4 billion in additional funding for the Highway Safety Improvement Program.

“We cannot tolerate the continuing crisis of roadway deaths in America,” Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg remarked in a statement. He added that DOT “will work with every level of government and industry to deliver results, because every driver, passenger, and pedestrian should be certain that they're going to arrive at their destination safely, every time.” 

To learn more about FMCSA’s Our Roads, Our Safety campaign, go to ShareTheRoadSafely.gov.