How vehicle safety regulations have changed over the past 50 years

Mirrorpix // Getty Images When it comes to getting around, driving a car is the riskiest mode of transportation. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports that 42,514 motor vehicle fatalities occurred in the United States in 2022, compared with under 1,600 fatalities for air, railroad, and transit travel combined, per Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Car crashes cut lives short and cause debilitating injuries. They also have a massive economic impact. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that, in 2019, crashes cost the economy nearly $340 billion. It also estimated that each of the 36,500 fatalities that year represented $1.6 million in economic loss in terms of the costs associated with medical care, legal aid, and emergency services, among other factors. To stem these profound losses, the federal government has spent decades implementing vehicle safety regulations. CheapInsurance.com traced the major milestones in vehicle safety using information from the NHTSA. Over the long haul, the agency’s work has paid off. The number of crash fatalities per 100,000 people dropped from 22.7 in 1979 to 12.8 in 2022. However, after hitting a low of 10.3 in 2014 with 32,744 deaths–a 35.9% drop from 1979, when 51,093 people were killed–the crash fatality rate has risen. The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to this problem. Between 2020 and 2022, drivers engaged in riskier behaviors such as excessive speeding, drunken driving, and failing to wear seat belts. The fatality rate spiked, with nearly 16,800 more fatal car crashes than expected, per the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. As regulators continue to work to encourage drivers to engage in safe habits, it’s worth looking at previous vehicle safety campaigns and how they mitigated the carnage on America’s highways. The 1900s-’60s: The rise of the automobile and increased need for safety Edward Miller // Getty Images When motorized vehicles first came on the market, they shared streets with horse-drawn carriages and pedestrians, causing chaos. State governments realized they needed to implement automotive regulations to keep citizens safe. Connecticut became the first state to introduce traffic laws when it enacted speed limits in 1901. The same year, New York required car owners to register their vehicles. By 1910, according to the Woodstock History Center, more than 315,000 motorized vehicles were on the road, creating a great need to reduce traffic jams. In 1914, the first permanent electric traffic light debuted in Cleveland, with green and red signals telling drivers when to go and stop. Drivers, however, couldn’t stop their powerful cars on a dime when the light changed. It wasn’t until 1923, when Garrett Morgan invented a three-signal light with a mode that stopped traffic in all directions, that intersections and driving became safer. By 1930, 23 million cars clogged American roadways, according to the National Museum of American History. What was once a novelty for the wealthy had become an indispensable mode of transportation, with over half of American families owning a car. Still, not all states regulated who could drive. In 1935, 39 of the then 48 states required driver’s licenses–but most didn’t require driving tests. Haphazard driving education, often taught by auto salespeople or family members, gave way to formalized high school driver’s ed classes. Unfortunately, more training didn’t reduce car crashes. By 1950, Federal Highway Administration data shows that fatalities had increased to 33,186, with a fatality rate of 7.2 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (compared to 1.3 in 2022, per IIHS data). Alarmed with the rising number of fatalities, President Dwight D. Eisenhower prioritized traffic safety when he took office in 1953. Early efforts included the creation of a federal charter for the National Safety Council and a modestly successful Safe Driving Day initiative to encourage public support of caution on the roads. Perhaps Eisenhower’s most significant impact came in 1956 when he signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act, which created the interstate system. Multilane highways had enough space and provided a safer network for automotive travel. By 1960, the fatality rate had dropped to 5.1 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. The 1960s-’80s: The birth of modern vehicle safety standards Thomas J O’Halloran // Getty Images In the 1960s, the focus on traffic safety pivoted from drivers and roads to cars. In 1965, consumer advocate Ralph Nader published the book “Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile,” which took General Motors to task for safety issues with the Chevrolet Corvair. Nader also criticized the federal government for allowing lax vehicle safety standards that required drivers to be perfect to avoid an accident. The book caused an uproar in the auto industry, but it spurred the government to action. New legislation created the National Traffic Safety Agency and National Highway Safety Agency. By 1968, the federal government mandated seat belts in cars, though usage rules didn’t gain traction until 1984. New York was the first state to require seat belt usage, but only for front-seat passengers. Since then, most states have implemented safety belt requirements–except New Hampshire, which still has no seat belt law for adults. Today, the NHTSA estimates seat belt usage saves 15,000 lives annually. The now-standard airbag also made its first appearance in this era, though an early iteration had been patented in the 1950s. The 1973 Oldsmobile Toronado was the first commercially available car to have this safety feature. Much like with seatbelts, though, airbag adoption took decades and wasn’t required until the 1999 model year. The NHTSA estimates that airbags saved 50,457 lives from 1987 to 2017. The 1980s-2000s: Increased consumer awareness and child safety Bettmann // Getty Images Safer cars didn’t just save lives; they also saved the insurance industry a lot of money. It wanted to continue that trend, so it had to figure out how to encourage more auto safety developments. The solution was crash tests. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety started conducting crash tests in 1992 to show what happens to vehicles and passengers in different crash scenarios. Even as manufacturers made safer vehicles, consumers weren’t necessarily doing their part to maintain safety, particularly by failing to use seat belts and driving under the influence. Drunken driving moved to the forefront in 1980 when grieving mother Candace Lightner founded Mothers Against Drunk Drivers after her daughter was killed by a drunk driver. The group soon became a national force, lobbying lawmakers to enact stricter drunk driving laws and increasing public awareness about the dangers of driving under the influence. MADD says research showed that teens were more likely to binge drink than adults, so it began a teenage drinking prevention campaign. This effort led to the passage of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, which raised the drinking age to 21 across the country. In the latter half of the 1990s, MADD campaigned to lower the national standard for blood alcohol content to 0.08, which President Bill Clinton signed into law in 2000. These tighter laws contributed to a nearly 44% decrease in fatalities caused by impaired drivers between 1982 and 2022, per NHTSA data. The government also endorsed seat belt use as a way to prevent fatalities. In 1983, IIHS-HLDI data shows just 14% of front-seat occupants wore safety belts, though wearing a seat belt reduces the risk of death by 45% and the risk of injury by 50%. Two separate initiatives got people to buckle up. In 1993, North Carolina started the “Click It or Ticket” campaign to crack down on unbuckled riders. Within a year, seat belt usage rose from 64% to 81%. By 2004, all states had similar programs. On a national level, the NHTSA partnered with the Ad Council in 1985 on a highly effective campaign featuring Vince and Larry, crash test dummies who showed viewers the perils of not wearing a seatbelt, saying, “You could learn a lot from a dummy.” By the campaign’s end in 1999, front-seat safety belt usage had jumped to 67%, and the two dummies were believed to have saved more than 85,000 lives. Continued efforts have paid off. In 2022, 92% of front-seat occupants buckled up. Child safety also came to the forefront around this time. By 1985, every state had laws about child safety seats, but parents had issues. To fix that, certified child passenger safety technicians taught parents how to install child restraints properly. New laws in the 2000s expanded the usage of child safety seats to older and bigger children. Between 1980 and 2022, child passenger fatalities dropped nearly 55% to 604, according to IIHS data. The 2000s-’10s: Technology and changing driving behaviors