Lyndon B. Johnson photo

Statement by the President in Response to Report of the President's Committee for Traffic Safety.

September 10, 1964

THE RECORD-BREAKING motor vehicle travel accompanying the Nation's high level of prosperity has increased the need for stepped-up activity to curb traffic accidents.

It is self-evident that we must expand and intensify our efforts to prevent these accidents.

Toward that end, it is indispensable that we initiate greater research into the causes and means of preventing accidents.

We need the active participation of the best minds in the colleges and universities in all of our States. We need to enlist researchers in all of the sciences: medicine, law, engineering, psychology, public information-every field that can help us to learn more about human behavior, and to develop new means of increasing the safety of highways and vehicles.

I am asking the Committee to report back to me as soon as it can as to the current status of traffic safety research in these fields, and what should be done to stimulate broader activity.

This is not to say that our present efforts have been fruitless. With the explosive traffic growth, our plight would be far worse had it not been for diligent safety activities.

Primary responsibility rests in our States, counties, and municipalities; and the Committee's report makes evident that improved performance, overall, has been attained.

The Federal Government and the Congress have cooperated, also, in many ways. A notable example is the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, with its many safety features.

The Committee for Traffic Safety has given leadership in stimulating State and community application of the tested and proved accident prevention measures of the action program.

Greater understanding of this program has been developed through national and regional conferences of legislators, public officials, and citizen leaders--both men and Women.

The Committee's projects are conducted through its advisory council of national, nonprofit organizations of public officials, and private interests, and Federal agencies.

Nevertheless, our combined efforts clearly fall far short of our requirements. There is urgent need to apply the entire action program more vigorously through day-after-day cooperation of private citizens and public officials. There is need for more technical assistance to these officials from national traffic safety service organizations.

These and many other needs must be met so we may deal more effectively with our critical traffic accident problem. We cannot accept the intolerable drain on our human and economic resources that these accidents are causing.

Note: The 34-page summary report, entitled "The Action Program, a Report to the President" and dated September 1964, was made available by the Committee.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President in Response to Report of the President's Committee for Traffic Safety. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/241644

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