By U.S. Sen. Jim Talent

There are a lot of reasons Congress should pass a robust highway bill, but none is more important than safety. Too many Missourians have paid for bad roads with their lives. In 2002, there were 1,028 fatalities on Missouri’s roads. That’s one person killed approximately every eight hours. On average, more than 1,000 Missourians are injured every year in motor vehicle accidents.

A new study released this week revealed that in 2003 rural roads were 2 ? times more deadly than all other roads. The Road Information Program (TRIP) study shows that Missouri drivers are three times more likely to lose their lives on rural roads than highways in and around urban areas. Urban roads are dangerous too, but rural roads with features such as narrow lanes, sharp curves and limited shoulders make them much more hazardous.

I talked to a mother in rural Missouri who told me that when her son goes out on the weekends she sits up at night waiting for him to come home. She said she does this, not because she’s afraid he will get into trouble. She waits up because she’s afraid he won’t make it home on the roads. As a parent, this woman has done everything possible for her son. She’s loved him, fed him, clothed him and made certain he was getting a good education. The one thing she could not do for him was build a road.

This mother understands what some in Washington have failed to recognize: building and maintaining our transportation infrastructure is a fundamental role of government.

The status quo for years has treated transportation infrastructure as someone else’s problem. In the 1990s, when the economy was booming, the federal government increased transportation funding, but not nearly enough. During that same period, Missouri raised the gas tax for road building purposes, but many of the projects were never built.

I said on the Senate floor that the longer we wait to do something about this problem, the harder, and more expensive it will be to fix it, and while we’re waiting, more lives will be lost on substandard roads.

The Senate passed a strong highway bill out of the Senate last year. That bill, unfortunately, got caught up in politics. This year, Senator Bond and I are once again

working together to pass a big highway bill for Missouri. The highway bill provides additional funding for roads, bridges, highways, transit and other transportation infrastructure products.

Numerous road safety features are in the bill including the establishment of the Highway Safety Improvement Program, which would awards grants to Missouri and other states so they can improve aging roads. To receive the grant money, states would be required to develop plans to identify their most dangerous locations. The bill also provides $200 million per year to eliminate hazards and install protective devices at railway-highway crossings.

To further increase transportation infrastructure funding, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and I have introduced our Build America Bonds plan to supplement the highway bill. Our bill would provide a $30 billion one-time bonding program designed to generate new transportation infrastructure. Under the proposal, 30-year bonds would be issued to build key transportation infrastructure projects now.

Additional bonds will be invested and used to repay the principal at maturity. The bonds will also be available in smaller denominations, so that Moms and Dad, Grandmas and Grandpas can purchase a $25 or $50 Build America Bond for their children or grandchildren, and invest in American jobs and safer roads.

Nothing can bring back those who lost their lives on Missouri’s roads, but we can prevent fatalities if we spend what is necessary to transform dangerous roads into safe ones. The money it takes to widen lanes, straighten curves and broaden shoulders is a small price to pay to save lives.

Senator Jim Talent (R-Mo.) was elected to serve Missouri in the U.S. Senate in November 2002. Previously he served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1993-2001) and the Missouri House (1985-1992).