Pennsylvania gets a failing grade in highway safety

When it comes to highway safety, a recalcitrant Pennsylvania earned a failing grade in 2010, a national coalition said Monday.

In its annual state-by-state report card, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety gave Pennsylvania - where cell-phone-toting, unbelted drivers can chat or text without fear of tickets - a red light for the second year in a row.

That category, the lowest of three rankings, signals a dangerous deficit of safety laws. Yellow suggests that improvement is needed, and green represents good legislation. New Jersey and Delaware earned green lights.

The group, a coalition of insurance companies and consumer, medical, and safety agencies, based its analysis on whether states had enacted 15 lifesaving laws. They included restrictions on handheld cell phones and teenage drivers, and requirements for motorcycle helmets, seat belts, and booster seats.

"Pennsylvania had this great reputation for safety years ago," said Judith L. Stone, executive director of the Washington-based group. "I don't know where that went."

Stone said she hoped states that have resisted safe-driving measures would have more incentive this year. She said that her group had always touted the economic benefits of lifesaving laws, but that with so many states in financial distress, she hoped the message would resonate.

"Any governor trying to curb costs ought to look at these laws," she said.

Kevin Harley, a spokesman for Gov. Corbett, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Rep. Katharine M. Watson (R., Bucks) said that a bill to ban texting while driving had already been introduced in the House and that a bill to restrict teenage drivers was pending.

Research has shown that implementing a primary-enforcement seat-belt law can save a state up to $46 million a decade in Medicaid costs, Stone said. In Pennsylvania, a seat-belt infraction is a secondary offense, which means motorists can be cited only if police pull them over for another reason.

Last year, Pennsylvania lawmakers spent months wrangling over a teen-driving bill that was eventually watered down so much, even some of its sponsors abandoned it before it died at the end of the session.

Stone said her organization was pushing federal legislation - the Safe Teen and Novice Driver Uniform Protection Act - to close the gaps between lax states like Pennsylvania and safety-conscious ones like New Jersey.

Stone, who joined other safety advocates at a news conference Monday, said it was difficult to understand the resistance to passing safety laws after listening to someone like Marlene Case.

Case, an emergency-room nurse from Pottstown, described the heartbreak of losing her 17-year-old son, Andrew, on Nov. 23, 2009, when he piled into an SUV with five friends. The vehicle's brand-new driver was reaching down to grab his cell phone and lost control, killing Case's son and another passenger, Michael Cantamaglia, 16.

Ever since, Case has tried to prevent similar fatalities, traveling to Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Washington to address lawmakers.

"I'll keep telling my story. Hopefully some good will come out of it," she said. "I don't know how many kids have to die in these crashes before we make changes."