Reducing Fatalities and Serious Injuries on County Roads

Brian C. Roberts, P.E.

Executive Director

National Association of County Engineers

Washington, DC

Housekeeping

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• This session is being recorded. To view the recording please visit www.naco.org/educational-recordings.

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Agenda

• TZD National Strategy

• County Implementation

• Funding Safety Projects

• National Strategy Focus Areas

Towards Zero Deaths (TZD): A National Strategy for Eliminating Highway Fatalities

What is TZD?

“A commitment to a comprehensive,

multidisciplinary, aggressive, and

proactive approach to improving

highway safety”

% Fatalities on Rural Roads (FARS 2011)

States with Zero Fatality Language (as of March 2012)

Stakeholders

TZD Steering Committee

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx

"We embrace the vision of Toward Zero Deaths; it provides an overarching and common vision that drives and focuses our efforts to achieve our shared goal to eliminate injuries and fatalities on our roadways.“

Implementation Plan for Counties

• Formal Adoption

• Establishment of Inter-Departmental and/or Inter-Agency work group

• Review and consideration of all identified strategies (high impact, time frame, etc)

• Commitment to data collection and analysis

• Participation with State SHSPs

• Development of Local Safety Improvement Plans

• Continuing Education

Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Process

MAP-21

• Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP)

• $2.4B per year!

• All public roads eligible

Eligible use of funding

“A highway safety improvement project is any strategy, activity or project on a public road that is consistent with the data-driven State Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) and corrects or improves a hazardous road location or feature or addresses a highway safety problem.”

Strategic Highway Safety Plans (SHSP)

• Developed by each state DOT in cooperation with other officials & stakeholders

• Data-driven multi-year, comprehensive plan

• Establishes statewide goals, objectives, & key emphasis areas

• States across the country are currently updating their SHSP…

• And your county officials should be at the table!

Strategies

• Safer drivers and passengers

• Safer vulnerable users

• Safer infrastructure

• Safer Vehicles

• Enhanced emergency medical services (EMS)

• Improved safety management and data processes

Safer Drivers and Passengers

Safer Drivers and Passengers

• Increase restraint use by drivers and passengers.

• Reduce speeding-related fatalities.

• Reduce impaired driving fatalities.

• Reduce driver distraction-related fatalities.

• Increase safety of young drivers. Increase safety of older drivers

Safer Vulnerable Users

Vulnerable Users

• Pedestrians and Bicyclists

– Increased fatalities in 2011 and 2012

• Motorcyclists

– 4.9M in 2001 to 8.4M in 2011 Registered

• Highway Workers

– 609 Fatalities in 2012

Safer Infrastructure

Infrastructure

• Endless resources and countermeasures

• We need the $$$$!

Safer Vehicles

Enable Communication with Other Vehicles and the Roadway Enable Communication with Other Vehicles and the Roadway

Automated Vehicles (AV)

• Enable Communication with Other Vehicles and the Roadway (V2V)

• Vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technologies

• V2X

Enhanced Emergency Medical Services

Of the drivers who died while being transported to the hospital, 75 % were rural drivers compared to 25% for urban drivers

Improved Safety Management

Why Data?

• It’s all about the data!

• This can be a challenge for Locals

• Data Driven Safety

• Ultimately required for funding

• No Data – No Funding

Safety Culture

Implementation Plan for Counties/Locals

• Formal Adoption

• Establishment of Inter-Departmental and/or Inter-

Agency work group

• Review and consideration of all identified

strategies (high impact, time frame, etc)

• Commitment to data collection and analysis

• Participation with State SHSPs

• Development of Local Safety Improvement Plans

• Continuing Education

Questions?

Evaluations

NACo values all feedback.

Evaluation forms can be found in the NACoConference app and online at

www.naco.org/workshopevals.

Please visit iTunes or Google Play to download the 2015 NACo Annual Conference App!