NATIONWIDE progress in the reduction of motor vehicle deaths and accidents since adoption of the President's Highway Safety Conference Action Program in 1946 has been steady and gratifying. Activities in line with the Action Program have gained momentum in the States and give promise of continuing progress.
Reports near the close of 1948 are encouraging. It is estimated that the number of fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles of travel for this year may be as low as 7.8, compared with the rate of 12 in 1945 and 8.6 in 1947. Traffic deaths may not exceed 31,300, the lowest death toll in the last 16 years, except for the war years when highway travel was sharply curtailed. This is being accomplished despite steadily increasing traffic volumes.
Accident-reduction programs in conformity with the Action Program are generally credited with the gains we have made as a Nation. In States and communities where most of the elements of the Action Program have been applied the accident rates are the lowest. Many States have outstanding safety records and excellent programs. But this progress is not universal, even in the 35 States which have made a real start in putting the program into effect.
Some States and communities have full powers for carrying the Action Program forward, while others are hampered by lack of authority, personnel, and funds. Forty-four State legislatures will be in session in 1949, affording opportunity for adoption of sound measures to improve safety and efficiency of highway transportation. Some of the 22 new Governors, who will assume duties in the next few weeks, may be unfamiliar with the Action Program.
These facts point to the need for another full-scale President's Highway Safety Conference, as recommended by the Committee on Conference Reports in Chicago last June.
Therefore, I will call such a conference in 1949, so that there may be a new State-by-State inventory of progress in highway safety, and so that procedures may be developed to meet our deficiencies through wider application of the Action Program.
As in the Conference of 1946 and the action Program meeting of 1947, the Federal Government again offers its fullest cooperation.
Note: The release also made public a letter to Maj. Gen. Philip B. Fleming, Administrator of the Federal Works Agency, dated December 2. The President informed General Fleming of his plans for the 1949 conference and requested him to continue as General Chairman of the conference organization.
Harry S Truman, Statement by the President on Highway Safety. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/234099