Driving and road safety

NHTSA and FHWA guidance on the choices behind most crash deaths — speed, belts, impairment, distraction — and how to keep kids safe in the back seat.

Belt everyone, every trip, including the back seat. It remains the single largest survivability factor in a crash.

Put the phone out of reach before you shift into drive. At 55 mph, a five-second glance covers a football field blind.

Plan the ride home before the first drink. Impaired driving is a decision made hours before it kills someone.

Check your car seat's height and weight limits and keep kids rear-facing as long as the seat allows. Most seats are installed too loose.

Slow down in work zones and around school buses. Most work-zone fatalities are drivers and their passengers, not workers.

Sourced from public guidance published by the FTC, CISA, FEMA/Ready.gov, the National Weather Service, NHTSA, CPSC, the U.S. Fire Administration and CDC. Federal works are in the public domain; summaries and checklists on this page are original.

• Seat belts saved nearly 15,000 lives in a single year — NHTSA data shows buckling up reduces the risk of fatal injury to front-seat occupants by about 45 percent in passenger cars. NHTSA
• Car seats: rear-facing as long as possible — Keep children rear-facing until they reach the top height or weight allowed by the seat, then move to forward-facing with a harness, then a booster until the seat belt fits properly. NHTSA
• Reading a text at 55 mph means driving a football field blindfolded — Taking your eyes off the road for five seconds at highway speed covers the length of a football field. Put the phone away before you shift into drive. NHTSA
• Drive Distraction-Free — Sending or reading a text takes your eyes off the road for about 5 seconds — at 55 mph that's the length of a football field. NHTSA
• Buckle Up Every Trip — Seat belts saved nearly 15,000 lives in a recent year. They reduce serious crash injury risk by about 50%. NHTSA
• Check your tire pressure monthly — Underinflated tires overheat and blow out. Check when tires are cold and use the pressure on the driver's door jamb sticker, not the number on the tire sidewall. NHTSA
• Look up your VIN for open recalls — NHTSA's free VIN lookup shows unrepaired safety recalls on your vehicle. Recall repairs are done at no cost by the dealer. NHTSA
• Plan a sober ride before you go out — Impaired driving kills roughly one person every 39 minutes in the U.S. Designate a driver, use a rideshare, or stay put. NHTSA