Actress Michelle Yeo, famous for her staring roles in movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Memoirs of a Geisha, joined Tony Kane, AASHTO Director of Engineering and Technical Services, and John Schafer, UN Field Security Officer and Security Director for InterAction, at the National Press Club to urge Congress to join the fight against what they call a "worldwide road death epidemic."

Yeo is a spokesperson for the Make Roads Safe Campaign for Global Road Safety, an international coalition that includes U.S. members AASHTO, AAA, MADD, SADD, and the Governors Highway Safety Association.

Mr. Kane, who has been a participant in highway safety events around the world for AASHTO, told reporters that, "the U.S. has much to share and much to learn by taking a worldwide perspective on highway deaths. State DOTs continue to make strides toward AASHTO's goal of cutting U.S. highway fatalities in half in the next two decades through such things as adding guard rails and lining two-lane roads with rumble strips and implementing major public education campaigns." Kane said.

The results have been promising. "National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data shows that deaths on U.S. highways have dropped to a record low during the first six months of 2009, but while the U.S. has seen improvements in reducing roadway fatalities, those successes represent only a part of the worldwide effort that is needed. We strongly believe the United States must also be proactive in this international campaign to save the lives being needlessly lost on the highways, focusing public attention on the crisis and sharing successful practices worldwide," Kane said.

Kane and Kirk Steudle, the Michigan Director of Transportation and Chairman of AASHTO's Standing Committee on Highway Traffic Safety, will join senior U.S. Department of Transportation and U.S. State Department officials November 19-20th at the Moscow Ministerial meeting to address this global highway safety crisis.

Watch coverage of today's event in this week's Transportation News Update, available Friday at www.transportationtv.org.