"Proactive Safety Principles" Agreement Reached With NHTSA

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and all of the major automakers doing business in the United States have agreed on a Statement of Proactive Safety Principles that are intended to reaffirm the agency and industry's commitment to work collaboratively to further improve vehicle safety. Described by NHTSA as "historic," the Statement of Principles was announced during the Detroit Auto Show on January 15, 2016.

The preamble to the Statement of Principles contains a few interesting statistics: Fatalities as a share of miles travelled are down 80 percent since 1966 (when the Safety Act was passed), 94 percent of all crashes are attributable to driver choices and human error, most of the remaining 6 percent were the result of environmental factors and improper maintenance, and, significantly, less than 1 percent of crashes were caused solely by vehicle defects.