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President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Federal Role in Highway Safety

Table of Contents

by
Richard F. Weingroff
Research Assistant from Sonquela "Sonnie" Seabron

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1: President Harry S. Truman's Highway Safety Conferences
President Truman and the Action Program
The President's Second Highway Safety Conference
The President's 1949 Highway Safety Conference
Highway Safety for National Defense
The 1952 Highway Safety Conference

Chapter 2: A Crusade for Safety
The Federal System
Business Advisory Committee
Federal Charter for the National Safety Council
White House Conference on Highway Safety
The President's Action Committee for Traffic Safety
Labor Day, 1954
Safe Driving Day
Congress Considers the Grand Plan
Facing Up To The Problem
Commission on Intergovernmental Relations
Safe Driving Day, 1955
Auto Safety Features, 1956
National Safety Forum and Crash Demonstration
Man of the Year
The President's Regional Conferences
The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956
Highway Safety Study
The House Special Subcommittee on Traffic Safety

Chapter 3: Maintaining the Focus
Gimmicks and Panaceas
Back the Attack!
Safety Features, 1957
A Worthwhile Objective
President Eisenhower on Federal-State Relations
Backing the Attack!
Harlow H. Curtice on Highway Safety
Mobilizing the Latent Force
Williamsburg Conference
Aim to Live!
Regional Conferences, 1958
Tomorrow's Car
Safety Slogan Fatigue
Conferences for State Legislators
Ike Stops By
The Chairman Steps Down
Congress Considers Safety

Chapter 4: The Federal Role in Highway Safety
BPR's Report to Congress
Epidemic on the Highways
The National System of Interstate and Defense Highways
Advancing the Action Program
Action/Inaction in Washington
The President Maps Traffic Safety Strategy
Federal Intervention
Joint Federal-State Action Committee
National Driver Register
The Platforms
The Interdepartmental Highway Safety Board
A Changed Social Order

Epilogue: The Changing Federal Role
A New President
The Roberts Bill
The Baldwin Amendment
Unsafe at Any Speed
On The Hill
National Safety Council Responds
An Investigation Backfires
Moving Out of the Stone Age of Ignorance
Overtaken By Events
The Aftermath

Appendix

Next

Updated: 06/27/2017
Federal Highway Administration | 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE | Washington, DC 20590 | 202-366-4000