Roadside Safety Research is underfunded and poorly supported by the highway engineering profession. In spite of the research accomplishments made in the past 30 years, the highway departments fail to adequately utilize knowledge gained. Research has been limited by funding and even more so by inadequate accident data and efforts by the states to evaluate the performance of safety designs in the field.

A continued failure by the federal and state highway agencies to develop comprehensive, scientifically based safety standards could result in substantially increased personal injury lawsuits by motorists. Increasing numbers of suits with million dollar awards are being made by the courts across the nation.

Even with greater funding and improved data the increasing variety of vehicles makes the engineer's job extremely difficult. The needed improvement in roadside safety through research is a crisis for our public health.