WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 24, 2010) – Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) was awarded a 2010 Safety Leader Award today by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, an alliance of consumer groups that work to improve the safety of America’s roads, save lives, and reduce injuries.

The 2010 Safety Leader award was presented to Schakowsky for her exemplary leadership on federal auto and highway safety legislation. Among the reasons for Schakowsky’s recognition, said Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Schakowsky fought to enact the Kids Transportation Safety Act of 2008. The law requires power windows to detect and reverse direction so that children aren’t trapped or injured; it requires all vehicles to have a brake interlock to prevent vehicle roll-away crashes; and it requires the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to issue safety rules to prevent “backovers” and give drivers a means by which to detect children in blind spots behind cars.

“I am truly honored to receive this award from the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a collaborative group that has shown incredible leadership for two decades,” Schakowsky said. “Collaborating with Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety to ensure that families from my district in Illinois and nationwide never have to experience the horror of an auto-related injury or fatality has been one of the major points of pride in my work as a legislator and consumer advocate.”

Said Judith Lee Stone, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety president: “Today, we celebrate the past twenty years of enacting highway and auto safety legislation that has saved many thousands of lives. But, we could not have passed these lifesaving measures without the dedication and tenacity of our legislative champions—they have made the nation’s roads safer for everyone who uses them, for generations to come.”

A report released last month by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety showing that federal and state highway safety laws enacted over the past 20 years have saved over 85,000 lives and over $600 billion in costs.  The auto safety group used the report, Advocacy for Safe Cars, Safe Driving and Safe Roads: 20 Years of Saving Lives and Reducing Costs from Traffic Crashes, to call on Congress to enact additional safety measures to reduce fatalities and bring costs down even further.