BY: ANNA KAMINSKI
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — As a representative of 60 mostly rural Kansas counties, U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann said road safety is not an abstract policy concept.
“For me, it’s personal,” the Republican said in recorded remarks at a Wednesday news conference by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.
Kansas families rely on safe road travel for essentials, including health care, employment, education and “everything in between,” Mann said.
The safety advocates organization Tuesday released a report, outlining why most states, including Kansas, received mediocre grades for road safety and how to address lapses in traffic laws.
This year’s report “makes it clear we still have major challenges on our roadways,” Mann said.
Politicians, advocates, law enforcement and mothers who lost their children in car crashes urged lawmakers during the news conference to shape their 2026 agendas to prioritize improving road safety.
The report rates all states and Washington, D.C., based on the organization’s key safety measures, including laws for seatbelt use, motorcycle helmets, child safety, young driver inexperience, impaired and distracted driving, speeding and red light running.
Red, the lowest ranking, means danger, indicating a state with inadequate road safety laws. Yellow means caution and includes states that have some of the organization’s optimal safety measures. Green signifies a good ranking for states that have enacted and enforced most of the measures.
Cathy Chase, president of the safety advocates organization, said 534 laws across the country need to be advanced to meet the organization’s safety criteria.
Kansas is one of 36 states in the yellow because of its lack of child passenger safety, adult occupant protection and young driver programs, according to the report.
Kansas records almost $3 billion in annual costs because of motor vehicle crashes, the report said. In the past 10 years, more than 4,000 people have died in Kansas traffic incidents. That includes 340 deaths in 2024.
In 2023, more than 40,000 people were killed in the U.S. in motor vehicle incidents. Texas had the most traffic deaths that year at 4,291, followed closely by California with 4,061 people. Both states’ numbers decreased in 2024, according to early estimates from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. D.C. had the fewest number of traffic deaths in both years at 44 people in 2023 and 47 people in 2024.
Annual traffic deaths have decreased across the board in recent years, but 2023’s number is still above 2011’s all-time low of 35,303 deaths.
Nearly one third of 2023’s traffic deaths were caused by drunk driving.
Mann and U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, D-New Hampshire, sponsored this year the End DWI Act, which encourages states to enact laws requiring ignition interlock devices for first-time drunk driving offenses. DWI stands for driving while intoxicated.
The proposed law aims to reduce drunk driving recidivism and keep drunk drivers off the road.Pappas said it’s critical for state and federal lawmakers to have data, and the organization’s report informs efforts to reduce traffic deaths.
“I’m glad that we’re able to pursue a commonsense agenda here in Washington, at a moment where it appears that things are really divided. There’s a lot that unites us, especially when it comes to transportation and infrastructure and safe roadways,” Pappas said.