NTSB MEETING TO SELECT "MOST WANTED" SAFETY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR 2003

The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a public meeting Tuesday, May 6 at 9:30 a.m., to select its list of "Most Wanted" safety recommendations for 2003.

The Board chooses for the "Most Wanted" list recommendations that will have the greatest positive impact on transportation safety. The list is updated annually and the recommendations selected receive intense Safety Board follow-up during the year.

A major focus of the May 6 meeting will be highway safety, particularly the problem of hard core drinking drivers. In 2001, there were over 17,000 alcohol-related highway fatalities nationwide. Studies have shown that hard core drinking drivers are over-represented in fatal crashes -- while constituting only about 0.8 percent of all drivers on the road, they are involved in about 27 percent of fatal highway accidents.

The Board also will consider adding recommendations to the "Most Wanted" list that would ensure that medically unfit drivers are not allowed behind the wheel of a commercial (motor coach/truck) vehicle.

In addition, the Board will review progress on recommendations in other key problem areas, including aircraft center wing tank explosions, airport runway incursions/ground collisions, youth highway safety, child occupant safety, seatbelt enforcement laws, positive train control systems, and recreational boating safety.

The NTSB's current "Most Wanted" list can be found on the Board's web site at http://www.ntsb.gov/Recs/mostwanted/index.htm.

The meeting will take place at the NTSB's Boardroom and Conference Center, 429 L'Enfant Plaza, SW, Washington, DC, 20594. (Front door is located on Lower 10th Street, directly below L'Enfant Plaza. From Metro, exit L'Enfant Plaza station at 9th and D Streets escalator, walk through shopping mall, at CVS store take escalator down one level. Boardroom will be to your left.)