The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) today announced a new proposed rule to require front and rear seat belt warning systems for drivers in most new vehicles manufactured in the United States.
GHSA News Release
August 21, 2023
Immediately following Auto Glass Week, AGSC president Mike Schenian and public affairs director Seth Maiman travelled to Louisville, Kentucky, to participate in the annual meeting of the Governor’s Highway Safety Association (GHSA), a 650-person conference attended by representatives of state and national safety groups. GHSA is a Washington, DC based association of the state highway safety offices inside of state governments across the nation. GHSA has designated AGSC as a Highway Safety Champion for its work in auto glass safety.
The 2022 GHSA Conference was titled “Traffic Safety in a Changing World” and featured presentations and seminars from officials of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and state highway offices. Amid a pandemic-era rise in traffic related deaths, presenters advocated for further adoption and advancement of the Safe System approach for preventing crashes and saving lives. The Safe System approach has been adopted by the U.S. Department of Transportation as the guiding paradigm to address roadway safety. The holistic and comprehensive approach focuses on both human mistakes AND human vulnerability and designs a system with many redundancies in place to protect everyone.
Safe Vehicles are one prong of the Safe System approach, along with Safe Roads, Safe Road Users, Safe Speed and Post-Crash Care. As safe windshields are an essential component of a safe vehicle, AGSC participates in such conferences to educate other safety advocates about the AGRSS Standard and teach best practices for auto glass replacement and repair.
“Working with our partners across the highway safety spectrum helps further the mission of AGSC. We spread the AGSC message about the safe installation of windshields, the AGRSS standard and calibration. We learned a lot from other organizations about how they reach the consumer to spread their pro-safety messages,” said Schenian. “With the GHSA conference coming right on the heels of Auto Glass Week, we had a lot of information regarding new and coming technologies to share with our safety partners.”
The Auto Glass Safety Council (AGSC) continues to work with the Governor’s Highway Safety Association (GHSA) to improve auto glass safety and reduce the impact of automobile crashes.
AGSC recently met with officials of the National Law Enforcement Liaison Program, which was created by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the GHSA. Law Enforcement Liaisons, or LELs, serve as a vital link and conduit between a State Highway Safety Office and that state’s law enforcement community. The discussion focused on educating law enforcement on the role that the windshield plays in vehicle safety and improving data collection regarding windshield failures in automobile crashes.
As part of the education effort, Seth Maiman, AGSC public affairs director, authored a Best Practices column for the Spring 2021 issue of The LEL, the group’s quarterly newsletter. The column focused on how glass plays a big part in making today’s cars safe and referenced the recent successful effort in Maryland to codify the voluntary industry Automotive Glass Replacement Safety Standard into state law. The full article can be read HERE.
The Auto Glass Safety Council (AGSC) is working to improve the collection of data regarding windshield failures in automobile crashes.
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“Great discussion! Thank you for your work to keep your customers safe,” tweeted Jonathan Adkins, Executive Director of the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), to @AutoGlassSafety (the AGSC Twitter handle) after a March 18 Zoom meeting between the leaderships of the GHSA and the AGSC. GHSA represents the state and territorial highway safety offices that implement federal programs to address behavioral highway safety issues.
AGSC Board Members and staff delivered a presentation to the group on the safety imperatives of proper auto glass installation with a focus on the urgency of calibration issues associated with Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).
Jacques Navant, AGSC ADAS Committee Chair, showed a video that demonstrated how easily a vehicle operating on ADAS can veer dangerously out of its lane if a calibration following a windshield replacement is off by a few millimeters. Navant informed the GHSA group that the Auto Glass Replacement Safety Standard was being updated to further address evolving ADAS related issues. Regarding faulty recalibration issues, he stated that “consequences can be slow to appear and subtle, yet fatal”.
Pursuing collaboration between the two groups is part of an ongoing effort by AGSC to engage with leading safety organizations across the country. “Working with stakeholders in the safety, particularly the automobile safety, space will help AGSC achieve its policy goals and further our mission to promote awareness of our auto glass replacement and repair standards to the insurance industry and the driving public at large,” said Seth Maiman, AGSC Director of Public Affairs.
GHSA members are the key safety officers in each state capital, often housed within the state’s Department of Transportation or of Motor Vehicles. They seek to move toward zero deaths on the nation’s roadways. GHSA’s mission is to improve traffic safety, influence national policy and promote best practices. One of its goals is to encourage innovative approaches in state safety programs.
The leaders of 16 state highway offices participated on the Zoom call along with GHSA staff. The two groups agreed to look to working together on educational messages, policy initiatives and to partner with law enforcement to collect data on windshield failures in crash investigations.
“The GHSA Executive Board had a great meeting today with @AutoGlassSafety. We discussed the dangers of faulty windshields and the impact on advanced driver assistance systems. We’re looking forward to working together to keep everyone safe”, announced GHSA on Twitter.