William
Franey
Class of 1991
Background:
Mr. William H. Franey was born January 26, 1918, in Syracuse,
New York, U.S.A. He attended Cortland State Teachers College,
Syracuse University, and the University of Delaware where
he completed the Institute for Association Management. He
was a graduate of Northwestern University's Traffic Institute.
Professional
Experience:
In 1942, Mr. Franey joined the Syracuse, New York Police Department,
serving until 1953. During this period, he attended and graduated
from Northwestern University's Traffic Institute. In 1949
Syracuse received one of two grand awards for traffic safety
from the National Safety Council. In 1953 he joined the New
York Insurance Industry Committee on Motor Vehicle Accidents,
where he served for six years. He was instrumental in the
development of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
and served for a two-year period (1959-61) as a staff member.
In 1961 he joined the National Safety Council as regional
representative for New York and served in this capacity for
one year. In 1962 he became director of highway safety, International
Association of Chiefs of Police. In 1973 he was appointed
assistant executive director, American Association of Motor
Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). He served in this capacity
for 11 years, and in 1984 he became a consultant to AAMVA's
Board of Directors where he served for three years. He retired
in 1987 and subsequently served as a consultant to 3M for
vehicle identification systems.
Career
Highlights:
Mr. Franey was instrumental in the development and passage
of the landmark 1966 Highway Safety Act and Motor Vehicle
Safety Act. This pioneering legislation created the framework
needed to give the USA the finest traffic safety record in
the world. It has been estimated that more than 400,000 lives
have been saved and 15 million injuries avoided because of
this legislation. He pioneered and championed the development
of the comprehensive systems approach to traffic safety, which
is unique throughout the world. He was a co-founder in the
creation of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in
1959. He was one of the first to recognize the need to provide
a research base for traffic safety demonstrations and evaluation.
He was the leading advocate in the early 1960s of the then
unpopular National Driver Register, the Driver License Compact,
the Non-Resident Violator Compact and the Motor Vehicle Safety
Equipment Compact. He served as a resource for Mr. Daniel
Patrick Moynihan, who wrote the farsighted, pivotal paper
on traffic safety as a public health problem in the early
1960s. He was a pioneer in urging development of a research
basis to verify the importance of treatment services for chronic
problem drinkers/DWI habitual offenders during the late 1940s
and early 1950s as advisor to the National Governors Association.
He wrote extensively and served in leadership roles in a number
of traffic safety related organizations/associations, including
chairman of the Alliance for Traffic Safety and chairman of
the National Committee for Uniform Traffic Laws and Ordinances
for several years. Mr. Franey's original concepts were the
necessary catalysts in making a range of new laws, services
and programs a reality. For many years he served as a consultant
to the President's Committee for Traffic Safety under President
Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was here that the concept known as
the "systems approach to traffic safety" developed,
which progressively and proportionately reduced the country's
highway death/injury toll over the years.
