"As state and local agencies take steps to reduce roadway deaths in the Houston area, officials are bristling at a federally-required assessment that sets a goal of no more than 728 deaths around the region this year — up from a goal of 699 in 2019.
“It is not OK for 699 people to die,” Jeff Weatherford, deputy director of Houston Public Works, told other members of a Houston-Galveston Area Council committee Friday. “I am going to keep on hammering that … Fundamentally, our process is flawed.”"