AHAS, an alliance of consumer, health, safety, insurance and law enforcement organizations, commissioned the survey to gauge the American public’s views on several highway and vehicle safety issues.
Harris polled a cross-section of U.S. adults (18 years and older) on a wide range of current safety issues from the controversial red light camera debate to cell phone driver restrictions to government spending priorities.
Among the survey’s key points:
· 78% of those surveyed want more attention paid to improving intersection safety. And, despite heated debates across the nation, state laws to allow the use of red light cameras as a law enforcement supplement and were favored in the poll by more than a 2-to-1 majority of the public (69%).
· 76% of those surveyed favor legislation that would restrict the use of cell phones while driving and 83% want more attention paid to the issue of cell phone use by drivers.
· 94% of those surveyed oppose access by Mexican trucks to U.S. highways without proper U.S. safety inspections.
· More than 70% of those surveyed expressed concern about the dangers of rollovers in vehicles. In addition, 85% favored a federal rollover standard.
· 83% of those polled (compared to 77% in 1999) favor an increase in federal spending on highway and auto safety programs, with 82% supporting a “penny at the pump” tax (one cent of the current 18.4 cents per gallon gas tax) to support this additional funding