The National Transportation Safety Board has proposed requiring speed-control technology in all new cars after a multicar crash resulted in nine deaths.

The U.S. government investigative agency made the recommendation and other traffic-safety proposals in a board meeting this week, calling on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. states, and automakers to take action.

In examining the 2022 six-car crash near North Las Vegas, Nev., in which the driver of a Dodge Challenger ran a red light at a speed exceeding 100 mph, the NTSB concluded excessive speed and a drug-impaired driver with a history of speeding violations were to blame. It faulted the state for failing to reign in the driver’s speeding “due to systemic deficiencies.”

Making Roads Safer for Drivers 

The agency recommends that “intelligent speed assistance” technology, or ISA, be required in all new vehicles. ISA uses a vehicle’s Global Positioning System navigation and cameras to compare to given areas’ posted speed limits. The systems can be either passive, giving drivers warnings if they exceed posted speed limits, or active, either making it harder to exceed speed limits or impossible due to electronically controlled vehicle limits for repeat offenders.

“This crash is the latest in a long line of tragedies we’ve investigated where speeding and impairment led to catastrophe, but it doesn’t have to be this way,” said NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy. “We know the key to saving lives is redundancy, which can protect all of us from human error that occurs on our roads. What we lack is the collective will to act on NTSB safety recommendations.” 

The agency said speeding-related crashes led to 12,330 U.S. traffic fatalities in 2021, or about a third of total deaths that year. It earlier asked regulators to increase the use of “speed safety cameras” and strengthen laws on speed-limit guidance, as well as laws and enforcement related to drug-impaired driving. It said the faulted driver in the Nevada accident was determined to be impaired by cocaine and PCP at the time of the crash.