Scholars Award: Automotive Fatalities: Making and Unmaking a Scandal, 1950-90

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of injury death in the United States. More than three million Americans have lost their lives due to traffic accidents in the 20th century. Despite the gravity of the issue, research and public policy on this issue has been inconsistent over the course of the 20th century. Periods of intense attention have alternated with decades of indifference. This research project will illuminate why some solutions to enhance car safety have been contentious and polarizing, while others were readily adopted. Using historical analysis, the project will focus on automotive safety. Outcries over automotive deaths in the 1960s resulted in suggestions for various technological improvements or implementations. While redesigned dashboards were generally accepted, requirements to wear seat belts and to adhere to speed limits often met with apprehension or rejection. Focusing on drivers and their public voices, the research project will analyze why so many motorists were reluctant to buckle up and to adopt limitations on how fast they could legally drive. In public protests, letters to political leaders, and in letters to the editor, drivers invoked personal freedom and a right to choose, while regulators presented these changes as contributions to the common good. Even more so than other transportation technologies, individually owned and operated automobiles became sites of democratic negotiations over what kind of technological changes governments should or should not require in the name of safety. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.