A new report highlights current action and recommendations to reduce and/or eliminate road deaths and injuries in the U.S.

In 2022, the most recent year with finalized statistics, more than 42,500 people were killed in crashes and an additional 2.38 million were injured, according to an alliance of auto safety stakeholders who worked to produce the report.

Preliminary numbers for 2023 and the first half of 2024 remain historically high.

Speeding, red light running, impaired driving, distractions and not buckling up are contributing to the escalating numbers.

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety is an alliance of consumer, medical, public health, law enforcement and safety groups and insurance companies and agents.

The 2025 Roadmap to Safety report gives every state and Washington, DC a rating in six categories (Occupant Protection, Child Passenger Safety, Young Drivers, Impaired Driving, Distracted Driving and Automated Enforcement to Curb Speed and Red Light Running) as well as an overall grade of “green,” “yellow,” and “red,” reflecting each state’s progress, or lack thereof, toward achieving the optimal laws.

Six states (Louisiana, Maryland, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington) and the District of Columbia receive the highest rating of “green,” while nine states earn a “red” rating for lagging dangerously behind in the adoption of Advocates’ recommended laws (Idaho, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wyoming).

The remaining 35 states receive a “yellow” or caution rating, indicating that improvement is needed.

“Every day in the U.S., millions of people get behind the wheel, commuting to work or school, carpooling kids to music lessons or athletic events, or going to the market or a local hardware store. Not one of them thinks they are going to get into a crash, and yet an average of 116 people are killed, and more than 6,500 people are injured in motor vehicle crashes every day,” said Cathy Chase, president, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. “With traffic fatalities at alarmingly high levels and effective solutions within reach, we offer the 2025 Roadmap to Safety report to turn around the drastic and deadly consequences of crashes that we all think will never happen to us, until they do.”

Jack Gillis, former executive director and CEO of the Consumer Federation of America and current Advocates’ consumer co-chair urged Congress, the U.S. Department of Transportation and every state legislature and governor to study the report and use it as the roadmap to improve safety on the roads.

The report identified opportunities for state legislative improvement in 2025 and noted that no state has enacted all 18 of Advocates’ optimal countermeasures. Based on Advocates’ safety recommendations, states across the nation need to adopt 533 laws.

Recommendations include:

• 15 states need an optimal primary enforcement seatbelt law for front seat passengers.
• 29 states need an optimal primary enforcement seatbelt law for rear seat passengers.
• 33 states need an optimal all-rider motorcycle helmet law.
• 26 states need a rear facing through age 2 or older child passenger safety law.
• 36 states and DC need an optimal booster seat law.
• 45 states and DC need an optimal rear seat through age 12 law.
• 186 graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws need to be adopted to ensure the safety of novice drivers; no state meets all the criteria recommended in this report.
• 32 critical impaired driving laws are needed in 28 states.
• 4 states need an optimal all-driver text messaging restriction.
• 22 states need a GDL cell phone restriction.
• 26 states need to permit red light cameras by law.
• 27 states do not have red light cameras in use.
• 22 states need to permit automated speed enforcement by law.
• 28 states do not have automated speed enforcement in use.

“With more than 5,300 people killed in crashes involving a young driver and more than 180,000 young drivers injured in crashes in 2022 alone, verified solutions are necessary. Today we encourage all states to review their graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws and take action to upgrade them, said Matt Gannon, head of Federal Affairs, Farmers Insurance, Advocates Insurance co-chair. “There is no time to waste on employing safety solutions to save lives. Fortunately, the Roadmap Report shows us the right steps to take to do so.”