National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Mason Byrd

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), established by Congress in 1970 as an agency within the Department of Transportation, carries out a variety of motor vehicle and highway safety programs. The NHTSA administers a variety of federal statutes and related grant programs to carry out its mission of reducing deaths, injuries, and trafficrelated economic costs. The NHTSA succeeded the National Highway Safety Bureau (NHSB), which Congress had created in 1966 in response to a rise in traffic fatalities. In 1965, consumer advocate Ralph Nader published Unsafe at Any Speed , a book that drew national attention to vehicle safety problems. NHSB's first administrator, William Haddon, Jr., an epidemiologist, sought to implement a balanced, scientific approach to highway safety that would address the reduction of harm caused by crashes, not merely their prevention. This broadened scope has continued in the agency's mandates and in the terminology adopted by safety officials. ...

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