The Commonwealths Strategic Highway Safety Plan

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• The Commonwealths Strategic Highway Safety Plan
• Stephen Read P. Eng.
• Virginia Department of Transportation
• May 1, 2006

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Lets Start with the Federal Perspective 41,000
fatalities and 3 million injuries each year
points to a national safety crisis FHWA Motor
Vehicle Crashes are the leading cause of death of
children and young adults. (Ages 4-34) NHTSA
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Overview

• New Requirement from Federal Legislation
  (SAFETEA-LU passed August 2005)
• VDOT must lead a cooperative process with safety
  stakeholders and citizens by Oct 2006
• Achieve significant reductions in deaths and
  serious injuries on all public roads
• Doubles funding and Highway Safety becomes a core
  program (From 12M to 25M per year)

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What are we doing for Virginias SHSP?
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Virginias Safety Partners

• VA Surface Transportation Safety Committee will
  monitor, evaluate and report progress
• Department of Motor Vehicles
• Virginia Department of Health
• Virginia Department of Transportation
• Virginia State Police
• Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program
• Formed in ISTEA era and strengthened role in
  TEA-21 and SAFETEA-LU

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Virginias Plan (2006-2010)

• Identify Virginia's safety needs
• Data-driven, long range vision and five-year plan
  that integrates Engineering, Education,
  Enforcement and Emergency Response
• Guide investment decisions align and leverage
  resources
• Establishes statewide goals, objectives, and key
  emphasis areas

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What is the Impact in Virginia?

• Motor Vehicle Crashes are one of the top health
  issues in Virginia.
• Annually
• 1 citizen in 91 is injured
• 1 citizen in 198 is sent to the hospital
• 1 citizen in 282 is incapacitated
• 1 citizen in 7,850 is killed
• -DMV Crash Data (2000-2004)

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Virginias Rank in the Country
Best State (MA)
US Avg
VA 12th
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Virginias Rank in the World
VA
US
Best Country (SWED)
Best State (MA)
ITA
AUS
GER
CAN
UK
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Virginias Current Situation
In ten years, 9,203 people
Source DMV Crash Facts
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Virginias Current Situation
In ten years, 805,272 people
Source DMV Crash Facts
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Emphasis Areas Strategies

• Human Factors
• Driver Behavior
• Special Users
• Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety
• Environmental
• Intersection Safety
• Roadway Departures
• Work Zone Safety
• Foundational
• Traffic Records
• Transportation Safety Planning

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Driver Behavior must change
Human Factors

• Four Targeted Groups
• Aggressive Driving
• Occupant Protection
• Impaired Driving
• Unlicensed / Suspended / Revoked Drivers

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Aggressive Driving Facts

• 2004 Speeding drivers caused
• 19,668 injuries
• 370 deaths
• 2004 Aggressive Driving Actions
• Ran Traffic Control (7,300 crashes)
• Failure to Yield (24,100 crashes)
• Following Too Close (28,800 crashes)

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Aggressive Driving Strategies

• Expand Smooth Operator Enforcement Program
• Automated enforcement (speed / red light)
• Public Awareness Campaign
• Educate young drivers of aggressive triggers
• Grow the Safe Driver Culture
• Better traffic flow to minimize stops and starts

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Impaired Driving

• 2004 Alcohol-related crashes caused
• 7,911 injuries
• 343 deaths
• Saturated Check Points
• Zero Tolerance for under 21
• Drowsy and Distracted Driving is harder to
  identify however, it is believed to contribute
  to impairment
• Legislation and public awareness

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Special Users

• Teen Drivers - 15,304 injuries / 177 deaths
• Senior Drivers - 4,260 injuries / 99 deaths
• Commercial Vehicle Operators
• 4,237 injuries / 129 deaths
• Motorcycle Operators - 1,802 injuries / 56 deaths
• Limited English Proficiency Drivers

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Human Factors Environment
Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety
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Ped and Bike Crashes
About 5 of all injury crashes involved a
Bicyclist or Pedestrian but about 11 of all
fatal crashes kill non-motorized travelers
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• Highlights
• 75 Percent of the crashes are in 18
  jurisdictions
• Per capita the cities have highest densities
  (e.g., Fairfax City highest)

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• Highlights
• Young people particularly young men.
• Male have higher number of crashes than female in
  every age group.

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• Highlights
• Young people, particularly male teenagers.
• Male have higher number of crashes than female in
  every age group.

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Pedestrian Crashes by Time of Day
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Bicycle Crashes by Time of Day
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Pedestrian Bicyclist Strategies

• Identify areas of high risk
• Link information to better understand problem
• Implement best practices in urban areas
• Target infrastructure improvements
• Develop Safe Routes to School Program
• Reduce exposure to speed and high volumes
• Educate both driver and pedestrian on
  responsibilities
• Encourage local policy to include Helmet Law

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Environment Intersection Safety

• 2004 intersection crashes caused
• 26,296 injuries
• 191 deaths
• 15 of all fatal crashes
• Sight distance, poor visibility, gap acceptance,
  speed, lack of information, non-compliance with
  traffic control device, upstream queuing
• Poor information on city crashes

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Environment Roadway Departure

• 2004 roadway departure crashes caused
• 13,326 injuries
• 362 deaths
• 18 of injuries and 40 of deaths
• Highly Severe
• Fixed Object (86 of RD) 50
• Non-Collision 60
• Head On 86
• 41 of RD crashes are to the left

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Environment Work Zones

• 2004 work zone crashes caused
• 1,214 injuries
• 10 deaths
• High volume, high speed, rear-end collisions,
  driver inattention, wide range of ages

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Foundational
Traffic Records Safety Planning

• 2004 crashes caused
• 78,487 injuries
• 922 deaths
• Data warehoused in separate agencies
• Difficult to use, inconsistent, backlogs, 60 of
  crashes are located properly
• Need to link crash, traffic, roadway inventory,
  citations, medical, judiciary, and driver records
• To make good decisions, we need to turn data into
  information for accurate problem identification

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Critical Components to Success
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• Mission
• To save lives and to reduce injuries related to
  motor vehicle crashes through the integration of
  education, enforcement, engineering, and
  emergency response actions.
• Vision
• To become the safest system in the country for
  all surface transportation modes by 2025.

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Our Proposed 2010 Safety Goal

• Reduce the annual number of deaths and injuries
  due to motor vehicle crashes by 185 to 275 deaths
  and 8,000 to 16,000 injuries by 2010 from 2005
  levels.

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Strategic Highway Safety Plan

• Schedule
• May 2006 Public Comment
• June 2006 Incorporate Comments
• July 2006 Official Signatures
• July - October 2006
• Each involved state agency will develop a
  Safety Action Plan tied to the Commonwealths
  Plan.

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Comments and Questions?

• Together, we will reduce injuries and fatalities
  on Virginias highways.
• Stephen.Read_at_VDOT.Virginia.gov
• Full SHSP document on
• www.virginiadot.org
• Written comments by May 31st to
• VASafetyPlan_at_VDOT.Virginia.gov