A Publication of the
Governors highway
safety association
Directions
in Highway Safety
Fall 2012
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pg
Helping States
Prevent Grant Fraud
New Teen Driver
Resources Available
Nebraska’s Zwonechek
Honored
Looking at
Highway Safety
through Public
Health Lens
T
he 2012 GHSA Annual Meeting, held
August 26 – 29 in Baltimore, explored
highway safety from the public health
perspective, focusing on how to apply successes in public health and highway safety
to continue improving safety on our nation’s roadways.
Attendees also learned how highway safety professionals can work more closely with the public health community to make highway safety a top public health priority.
The keynote speakers during Monday’s opening general
session were U.S. Department of Transportation Deputy
Secretary John Porcari and director of the CDC’s National
Center for Injury Prevention and Control Dr. Linda Degutis.
Porcari shared his perspective on public health and highway safety, while Degutis reiterated CDC’s commitment to
continue to focus on highway safety as a priority issue.
On Tuesday, meeting attendees heard from three more
national public health experts. Dr. Carolyn Cumpsty
top
Maryland
State Police
Superintendent
Marcus Brown,
keynote speaker
U.S. Department
of Transportation
Deputy Secretary
John Porcari,
and NHTSA
Administrator
David Strickland.
bottom
The new GHSA
2012-2013
Executive
Board (left to
right): Chairman
Kendell Poole
(Tennessee);
Secretary
Jana Simpler
(Delaware);
Vice Chairman
John Saunders
(Virginia); and
Treasurer Terry
Henderson
(Alabama).
Story continues on page 2
1
t
Looking at Highway
Safety through
Public Health Lens
continued.
Fowler, from the Johns Hopkins
Center for Injury Research and Policy, discussed how approaches used
to tackle public health problems can
be applied to motor vehicle injury
reduction. Executive Director of the
American Public Health Association Dr. Georges Benjamin reviewed
lessons learned from public health
efforts (such as smoking cessation and reducing obesity) and their
implication for motor vehicle injury
prevention. And Dr. Flaura Winston
covered how the Center for Injury
Research and Prevention’s work
with young children and teens has
improved the safety of those populations in motor vehicles.
1. Attendees relax at the Maryland Historical
Society during the Opening Reception on Sunday
evening.
3. Robyn Robertson, President and CEO of the Traffic
Injury Research Foundation, speaks at the “Emerging
Trends in Impaired Driving” workshop.
2. State Farm’s Malcolm Hamilton welcomes
guests to the Opening Reception at the Maryland
Historical Society.
4. The audience watches the presentation of the 2012
GHSA Highway Safety Awards.
5. Dr. Carolyn Cumpsty Fowler discusses how
approaches used to tackle public health problems can
be applied to motor vehicle injury reduction.
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The Closing Luncheon speaker on
Wednesday was author and commentator Tom Vanderbilt, who gave
a thought-provoking talk on his recent work in the public health area,
focusing on pedestrian safety and
obesity reduction.
Breakout workshops also addressed
the link between public health and
highway safety. Topics included:
post-crash EMS countermeasures
that can improve survivability;
utilizing public health approaches
to make highway safety a cultural
norm; and medical approaches to
teen driver safety.
In addition to general sessions and
workshops, the meeting agenda
also included GHSA’s annual stateonly business meeting, presentation of the 2012 highway safety
awards, and several networking
opportunities.
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6. Idaho’s Brent Jennings moderates a session
on changing the way risky driving is viewed in our
culture.
7. Patti Brady, of Pulaski County, Arkansas’
Youth Accident Prevention Program, at Tuesday’s
Networking Reception.
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8. National Law Enforcement Liaison Program
Manager Lowell Porter talks the “business case”
for maintaining traffic safety as a law enforcement
priority.
9. GHSA Highway Safety Award winners at the
head table at Tuesday’s Awards Luncheon.
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10. James J. Howard Highway Safety Trailblazer
winner John Lacey accepts his award from GHSA
Chairman Troy Costales.
11. The 2012 GHSA Annual Meeting would not
have been possible without the amazing help of
these Maryland Highway Safety Office volunteers.
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1. Attendees chat with Uncle Sam himself at the LifeSafer booth.
2. The Save A Life Tour was a popular stop in the exhibit hall.
3. Maryland Highway Safety Office chief Tom Gianni with Michael
Wynnyck of the University Park, Md. police department, Larry Harmel
from the Maryland Chiefs of Police Association, and Baltimore City
DOT’s Patrick McMahon.
1
GHSA thanks the 2012 Annual Meeting
Sponsors and Exhibitors for making
the event such a success.
Sponsors/Partners
Exhibitors
diamond
AARP Driver Safety Program
Accident Support Services International, Ltd.
ADEPT Driver
Agate Software
Alcohol Countermeasure Systems
Alcohol Monitoring Systems, Inc.
Alere Toxicology
All Traffic Solutions
Alliance Sport Marketing
AllOver Media
Association of Ignition Interlock Program Administrators
California Office of Traffic Safety
CDC’s Injury Center
Center for Advanced Public Safety
The Century Council
CMI, Inc.
Colorado Department of Transportation
Draeger Safety Diagnostics, Inc.
ELSAG North America
FHWA Office of Safety
Ford Driving Skills for Life
GEICO Educational Foundation
GRACO Children’s Products, Inc. A Newell Rubbermaid Company
Guardian Interlock Systems
Huddle, Inc.
Innocorp, Ltd. - Makers of Fatal Vision®
Institute of Police Technology & Management
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
Intoxalock by Consumer Safety Technology
Intoximeters, Inc.
Ladybug Teknologies Inc.
Laser Technology, Inc.
Law Enforcement Mobile Video Institute
LifeSafer
Lighted Promotions, Inc.
Motivational Media Assemblies
MPH Industries, Inc.
National Coalition for Safer Roads
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
National Judicial College
National Organizations for Youth Safety
National Patent Analytical Systems
The National Road Safety Foundation, Inc.
National Safety Council
Naval Safety Center
PAS Systems International
The Reflectory
ResQMe
Rubber Manufacturers Association
SADD
Save A Life Tour
Smart Start, Inc.
Stalker Radar
Tennessee Tech University
BusinessMedia Center
ThinkFirst National Injury Prevention
Foundation
U.S. Army Combat Readiness/Safety Center
WatchGuard Video
The Allstate Foundation
State Farm™
PLATINUM
Ford Motor Company Fund/Ford Driving
Skills for Life
Nissan North America, Inc.
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
GOLD
Nationwide Insurance
Volvo Cars of North America, LLC
SILVER
Chrysler Group LLC
Hyundai Motor Co.
National Coalition for Safer Roads
BRONZE
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AAA
AllOver Media
Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, Inc.
BMW of North America, LLC
Cambridge Systematics, Inc.
The Century Council
Mercer Consulting Group LLC
Rubber Manufacturers Association
other
DCH Auto Group
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California, Here We Come!
Plan Now for GHSA’s 2O13
Annual Meeting in San Diego
August 25th - 28th
P
lans are already coming
together for GHSA’s 2013 Annual
Meeting being held August 25-28 in
San Diego. The theme of the conference is “Highway Safety & Technology: Navigating the Road Ahead.” General sessions and
workshops will examine the challenges technology
presents as well as how technology can provide
solutions to vexing highway safety problems.
General session speakers and topics will be
announced at www.ghsa.org as they are confirmed. Already confirmed is Mara Liasson
who will serve as the conference’s clos-
ing luncheon speaker on August 28. Ms.
Liasson is the national political correspondent
for NPR. Her reports can be heard regularly
on NPR’s All Things Considered and Morning
Edition. Liasson provides extensive coverage
of politics and policy from Washington, D.C.
— focusing on the White House and Congress
— and also reports on political trends beyond
the Beltway. In addition, she is a regular contributor on Fox News and a panelist on Fox
News Sunday. She will address how technology
is impacting media coverage and discuss the
political landscape. Mark your calendar for this
unique GHSA Annual Meeting session.
Continue to check www.ghsa.org for details.
5
Around
Washington
CDC Vital Signs Examines
Teen Drinking and Driving
National Roadway Safety
Award Applications Sought
CDC Vital Signs is a series
The National Roadway Safety
Awards are a biennial competition
sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and
the Roadway Safety Foundation
(RSF) to recognize roadway safety
achievements that move the United
States toward zero deaths. Applications for the 2013 awards are
currently being solicited and will be
accepted until March 31, 2013.
of Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) publications that
addresses a single public health
topic each month. The October
2012 issue provides recent statistics about drinking and driving
among high school teens and offers
solutions to help curb this dangerous behavior.
The report notes that although the
percentage of teens who drink and
drive has decreased substantially in
the past two decades, nearly one
million high school teens still drank
alcohol and got behind the wheel in
2011. Further, one in five teen drivers
involved in fatal crashes had some
alcohol in their system in 2010.
Proven strategies to prevent teen
drinking and driving are outlined.
These include minimum legal drinking age laws, zero tolerance laws
(making it illegal for those under 21
to drive after drinking any amount of
alcohol), Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) systems, and parental
involvement. The publication also
provides specific action items for
states and communities, pediatricians and other health professionals, teens, and parents.
Visit www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/
TeenDrinkingAndDriving for the
full article, fact sheet and other
materials.
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●● Program Planning, Develop-
ment, and Evaluation awards
Awards are presented in three
categories:
●● Infrastructure Improvements
are physical improvements to
the roadway or roadside that
improve safety, such as: safety
devices; engineered design
improvements; obstacle removal, relocation, or physical
upgrades; intersection improvements; and signage and
pavement markings.
are
non-physical improvements that
contribute to roadway safety, including: innovative channelization; weather safety operations;
ITS-based safety programs;
multidisciplinary activities such
as road safety audits; and road
design and striping efforts
aimed at reducing or minimizing
the severity of crashes caused
by speeding, distractions, and
other offenses.
●● Operational Improvements
are presented to programs
that identify and address state
and local needs by making effective use of safety data and
evaluations. These include:
public involvement in safety
audits and planning; crash
data analysis and integration;
crash location identification
and analysis for crash countermeasure development; development and implementation
of excellent Strategic Highway
Safety Plans; and use of data
evaluations to produce targeted policies, processes, and
practices that improve safety.
Applications will be judged on effectiveness, innovation, and efficient
use of resources and must include
demonstrated evidence of datasupported results.
Visit www.roadwaysafety.org for
additional details or to download
the award application.
from our perspective
Grant fraud: Think it can’t happen
in your agency? Think again.
By Michael L. Prince, Director,
Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning
The schemes, most of which were associated with grants
funding overtime for Special Traffic Enforcement Projects
(STEPs) for seat belt, drunk driving, and speed enforcement, typically involved one more of the following:
●● Falsification of log sheets: The most common
fraud scheme occurred when officers misreported
the hours worked, the time tickets were written,
and/or the number of tickets written in order to be
paid for time not worked. Some of the incidents took
place with the approval of supervisors and were
discovered when officers’ log sheets were compared
to actual time worked based on dispatch logs, ticket
records, and vehicle logs.
●● Falsification of citations: This was discovered
when an officer’s citation book was found with completed citation information but no times noted. Times
were apparently omitted from the citations until the
log sheet was completed. False times were entered
on the citations so it appeared that the citations were
written during a STEP overtime shift. Officers had
used either false names or, in some cases, were pulling over violators for unrelated matters. Officers also
were disposing of the court’s copy of the citation and
only keeping their own copy to give the appearance
of having submitted the citation documentation to the
court. The court system later revealed that there was
no record of citations written on the officer’s shift.
●● Misuse of administrative time: In the third type
of scheme, officers were found to be routinely adding
at least one to two hours to their administrative time
worked at the end of their shift for work not performed.
Other examples of fraud included a grant to a law enforcement agency where the chief used federal grant funds to
cover gaps in the department’s general operating expenses. This resulted in the state reimbursing NHTSA more
than $45,000.
The worst example occurred in Texas and netted fraudulent payments of more than $500,000 in overtime for
federally funded traffic enforcement projects involving four
police agencies. These incidents resulted in the criminal
indictment of 25 officers, all of whom have since resigned,
retired, or been terminated. Earlier this year, the U.S. Office
of the Inspector General (OIG) expanded its investigation
to other states, and it is expected that the amount of fraud
and number of officers involved are likely to increase as
the investigation continues.
State Highway Safety Offices (SHSOs) are very diligent
in the grant monitoring process to ensure that these
types of incidents do not occur. Regardless, as part of
their grant monitoring process, SHSOs should: inquire
about internal management controls within participating
agencies; review citation systems (paper are more vulnerable than electronic); and review supervisor training. Lack
of supervision during grant overtime patrols was cited as
one of the biggest weaknesses in those agencies that
experienced overtime fraud. Better communication, policies and procedures, training, and closer supervision can
greatly deter fraudulent behavior and malfeasance.
While the number of incidents is small given the number
of agencies that receive funding for these special patrols,
there is absolutely zero tolerance for fraud by agencies
or individuals receiving state or federal grant funding.
These types of incidents are self-serving, criminal, and
do nothing to improve traffic safety. They also put our
citizens and our families at risk for the sake of personal
profit. Lastly, these incidents damage the credibility of law
enforcement as well as a federal program that has helped
to dramatically reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries
on the nation’s roadways.
Anyone who suspects grant fraud should contact their
state or federal administering agency, the state attorney
general, or the OIG at 800-424-9071 or hotline@oig.
dot.gov.
t
T
Here have been some alarming incidents involving grant fraud by law enforcement
officers taking part in federally-funded traffic
safety programs.
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Did you
know
●● Strengthening driver education
and training;
®
●● Engaging teens in understanding
and addressing driving risks; and
●● Garnering consistent media cov-
erage of teen driving
Curbing
Teen Driver
Crashes
An In-Depth Look at State Initiatives
This report was made possible by a grant from
Two New Teen Driver Safety
Resources Available
GHSA recently put out a
report that details what states are doing
to address teen driver safety. The AAA
Foundation for Traffic Safety (AAA
Foundation) also published a study that
reinforces the need for strong passenger restrictions. Both were released
just prior to National Teen Driver Safety
Week, which ran October 14 – 20.
The GHSA publication, Curbing Teen
Driver Crashes: An In-Depth Look at
State Novice Driver Initiatives, examines
how states are advancing teen driver
safety through six key strategies:
●● Strengthening Graduated Driver
License (GDL) laws to ensure
they include elements that address crash risk and skill building;
●● Ensuring understanding and en-
forcement of GDL laws by police
officials;
●● Engaging parents in understand-
ing, supporting and enforcing
GDL laws;
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GHSA surveyed its SHSO members
to identify which programs and initiatives to feature in the publication, and
an expert panel shared insights on
other activities that are showing or are
expected to show promising results.
Transportation safety consultant and
former New Jersey State Highway
Safety Office Director Pam Fischer
authored the report.
have as part of their Graduated Driver
Licensing (GDL) laws, but some are
more restrictive than others. According
to Peter Kissinger, AAA Foundation’s
president and CEO, “[This report]
should be a clear call for legislatures
in those states that don’t have robust
passenger restrictions,” he said.
GHSA’s publication is available online
at http://www.ghsa.org/html/publications/sfteens12.html. A limited
number of print copies are available.
E-mail jadkins@ghsa.org to request a
print copy. Access the AAA Foundation study here: http://bit.ly/OYgvdY.
The AAA Foundation’s study, Characteristics of Fatal Crashes Involving
16- and 17-Year-Old Drivers with
Teenage Passengers, demonstrates
that the risk of a fatal crash increases
as the number of teenage passengers
increased.
Researchers analyzed crash data from
the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting
System (FARS) from 2005-2010 to
determine whether there was a correlation between specific risky behaviors
(speeding, drinking and late-night
driving) and the number of teenage
passengers. All three risk factors were
more prevalent among 16- and 17-yearold drivers involved in fatal crashes
when the drivers were accompanied by
teenage passengers.
The fact that the teen driver crash
rate increases with more passengers
has been established. But this report
goes beyond to quantify the incidence
of speeding, drinking, and late-night
driving as contributing factors in teen
driver crashes when multiple teen passengers are present.
Many states limit the number of passengers that novice teen drivers can
Report Examines Point-toPoint Speed Enforcement
Austroads, the association
of Australian and New Zealand road
transport and traffic authorities,
recently published a report on the international use of point-to-point speed
enforcement to provide principles for
better practice for its use in Australia
and New Zealand.
Point-to-point enforcement is a relatively new technological approach to
traffic law enforcement that has been
implemented or piloted in a number of
countries. It is primarily used to monitor
compliance with posted speed limits.
While the system can be fully automated, most involve some degree
of human verification to evaluate the
validity of detected violations. Validated
offenders are issued an infringement
notice, and data on non-offending
vehicles are typically erased.
This report details the various technologies and equipment used in
point-to-point speed enforcement
operations. The report also summarizes
the evaluations of point-to-point speed
enforcement systems in the United
Kingdom, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy
and France. It highlights a number of
positive findings associated with pointto-point speed enforcement, including:
substantial reductions in mean and 85th
percentile speeds; exceptional rates of
compliance with posted speed limits;
reductions in all types of crashes; more
homogenized traffic flow; and increased
traffic capacity resulting from reduced
vehicle speed variability and subsequent increased headway. Although the
system can be expensive, a number of
cost-benefit analyses have demonstrated long term net economic benefits.
The full report is available at www.
onlinepublications.austroads.com.
au/items/AP-R415-12 after registering with the website.
trends, share successful practices, and
support research.
National Center for Safe
Routes to School Merits
Harvard Award
The National Center for Safe
Routes to School (National Center) has
received a Bright Ideas in Government
award from Harvard University’s Ash
Center for Democratic Governance
and Innovation for its work in engaging communities in data collection and
information-driven decision making.
The National Center exists to help states
and communities enable and encourage
children to walk and bicycle to school
safely. Operating out of the University of
North Carolina Highway Safety Research
Center, it also acts as the information
clearinghouse for the Safe Routes to
School (SRTS) program. GHSA serves
on its Advisory Committee.
Harvard’s Bright Ideas in Government
award recognizes the National Center for
providing communities with resources
that makes the collection and analysis
of school travel information easy and
useful at all project stages. Hundreds of
local SRTS programs and thousands of
schools currently utilize these resources.
These resources offer benefits at the
local, state and national levels. The
information collected helps local communities guide their SRTS planning
process. Participation in data collection efforts allowed states to apply for
and receive SRTS funds. Nationally,
the data service allows users to identify
National Center for Safe Routes to
School director Lauren Marchetti
acknowledges the local and state
organizers who helped contribute to
the efforts: “The Bright Idea in Government award is a tremendous honor for
the National Center, and the data system would not have been successful
without [their] fundamental desire … to
make data-driven program decisions.”
Harvard’s Innovations in American Government Awards Program
launched the Bright Ideas in Government award in 2010 to recognize and
promote creative government initiatives
and partnerships and create an online
community where innovative ideas can
be proposed, shared, and disseminated. Winners are selected by a team
of policy experts from academic and
public sectors.
To learn more about the National
Center for Safe Routes to School,
visit www.saferoutesinfo.org. For
more information on the Bright Idea in
Government awards, go to http://bit.
ly/OZWymD.
New Resource for Improving Rural Road Safety
The Center for Excellence in
Rural Safety (CERS) recently published
a report to offer the public, engineers
and policymakers a variety of methods
and tools for increasing rural highway
safety. Rural Transportation Safety: A
Summary of Useful Practices begins
with an introduction to the problem and
provides a summary of policy, engineering and organizational countermeasures.
A disproportionate number of crash fatalities occur in rural areas. Contribut-
t
Point-to-point speed enforcement
measures the average speed of vehicles
passing a series of cameras by using
automatic number plate recognition
(ANPR), optical character recognition
(OCR) and other technologies. Through
a series of cameras installed at multiple
locations along a road section, the
system captures an image and registration data of each vehicle as it enters the
system and at subsequent camera sites.
It calculates the average vehicle speed,
and if this speed exceeds the legal posted speed limit (beyond a pre-determined
threshold) for that road section, data are
transmitted to a central processing unit.
9
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Did you
t
know
ing factors to rural road deaths include
the increased distance to emergency
care, the nature of roadways themselves, the increased number of vehicle
miles traveled, alcohol, speeding and
the lack of seat belt use.
To improve rural highway safety,
CERS outlines several policy changes which can influence driver behavior. Solutions offered range from seat
belt and universal motorcycle helmet
laws to alcohol enforcement policies
such as sobriety checkpoints, ignition
interlocks and staggered sentencing
for DWI offenders. Graduated Driver
Licensing (GDL) programs and automated speed enforcement are also
discussed. CERS notes that public
support is a key consideration when
implementing these policy countermeasures.
In terms of roadway design, the report
notes that rural highway fatalities
tend to occur in one of two broad
categories: intersections or roadway departures. It provides seven
engineering countermeasures which
hold promise for reducing these and
other categories of rural fatalities:
the Safety Edge(sm) asphalt paving
technique; cable median barriers; turn
lanes; rumple strips and retroreflective signs; dynamic warning systems;
roundabouts; and technical solutions
such as CrashHelp, which allows
on-scene first responders to record
audio, video and still pictures of the
crash and patient injuries.
Finally, CERS presents several organizational changes, focusing on Strategic Highway Safety Plans (SHSPs)
and Toward Zero Deaths (TZD) movements. The report provides information
on SHSPs, TZD programs and presents state, regional and national case
studies, including Washington State’s
Target Zero SHSP and Minnesota’s
TZD program.
10
To download a copy of the report, visit
www.ruralsafety.umn.edu/research/
documents/ruraltransportationsafety.pdf.
programs that can reduce crash-related injuries and fatalities.
Luckily, such programs do exist.
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and
Toyota have teamed up to create
“Buckle Up for Life,” an initiative that
works through churches to teach
people the importance of buckling
up and using car seats. The program
addresses three important factors
that contribute to lack of restraint use
among minorities:
●● Economic. Because African
Fewer Minority Children
Properly Restrained
in Vehicles
Researchers at the University of Michigan recently set out to
determine factors associated with child
passenger safety practices by race/
ethnicity. Using a national sample of
more than 20,000 passengers under
age 13, they determined that minority
children are less likely to use recommended child passenger restraints
than their white peers.
Specifically, black and Hispanic
infants and toddlers were found to be
unrestrained at rates 10 times those of
white children. Riding with an unbuckled driver and sitting in the front
seat decreased the likelihood that a
child was using an appropriate child
restraint, and older children were less
likely to be properly restrained.
The report, published in the September
2012 edition of the American Journal
of Preventive Medicine, suggests that
understanding these reasons for suboptimal child passenger restraint use is
a critical element to creating effective
Americans and Hispanics are
disproportionately represented
in lower socioeconomic groups,
parents may own older vehicles
without seat belts or be unable to
afford a car seat. “Buckle Up for
Life” provides free car seats.
●● Educational. The communities
served may be unaware of the
importance of seat belts. This program teaches people the safety
implications of not buckling up
and restraining their children, and
experts are available to help install
car seats properly.
●● Cultural. A family may have no
history of using seat belts or child
safety seats.
The program has been successful: restraint use at Cincinnati-area churches
has gone up significantly, according
to studies conducted by the hospital
and Toyota. In addition to Cincinnati,
“Buckle Up for Life” currently is offered
in churches in Chicago, Los Angeles,
San Antonio, Houston and Las Vegas,
and it is expected to expand to Philadelphia, Orange County, CA and other
cities this year.
Calendar
OCT. 28 – 31
Traffic Records Forum
Biloxi, Mississippi
www.trafficrecordsforum.org
NOV. 12 – 26
Thanksgiving Holiday Travel
Click It or Ticket Campaign
http://bit.ly/ciottgiving
t
DEC. 3
NOYS Teen Distracted Driving
Prevention Summit
Washington, D.C.
www.noys.org
Teens take part in a safe driving exercise.
DEC. 12 – 13
GHSA Executive Board Meeting
Atlanta, Georgia
December 3, 2O12
Youth Leaders to Convene
on Distracted Driving
The National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) Coalition is
hosting its third annual Teen Distracted Driving Prevention Summit
in Washington, D.C. on December 3. The summit offers youth and
adults across the nation the opportunity to take the lead in creating solutions to end texting while driving.
DEC. 14 – JAN. 2
Holiday Season
Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over
Campaign
http://bit.ly/dsogpoholiday
jan. 13 – 17
Transportation Research Board
(TRB) Annual Meeting
Washington, D.C.
www.trb.org
The agenda includes youth training, workshops and exhibits. Youth
teams that attend the summit will lead year-long efforts in their
communities to develop, implement, and support distracted driving
prevention efforts. This includes hosting a Teen Distracted Driving
Prevention Summit in their home states. More information is online
at www.noys.org.
11
®
Directions in Highway Safety is published by
the Governors Highway Safety Association
444 N. Capitol Street, Suite 722
Washington, DC 20001
Phone 202-789-0942 Fax 202-789-0946
www.ghsa.org
twitter: ghsahq
kendell poole , chairman
john saunders , vice chairman
jana simpler , secretary
terry henderson , treasurer
barbara harsha , executive director
jonathan adkins , editor
kara macek , editor
tony frye , design
Nebraska’s Zwonechek Honored
GHSA’s Nebraska Member,
GHSA’s Nebraska Member,
Fred Zwonechek
Fred Zwonechek, was recently
inducted into Nebraska’s Safety
and Health Hall of Fame. Organized
by the National Safety Council’s
Nebraska chapter, individuals are
recognized for their vision and
inspirational leadership, for influencing influencers, for their dedication
to safety and ambassadorship of the
mission and for support and encouragement which builds a strong
foundation and gives an exceptional
staff the power and confidence to
move the Council forward to serve
the entire state.
Zwonechek has been with the
highway safety office for 38 years
12
and has served as director since
1981. During his tenure as director, Nebraska’s total crashes have
decreased 24 percent, alcohol
related fatalities have decreased 73
percent and seat belt use has risen
to 84 percent, a strong achievement for a state with a secondary
seat belt law. In addition to his state
service, Zwonechek has been a
national leader, serving GHSA on its
Executive Board for many terms as
well as serving as the organization’s
Treasurer.
To mark the occasion, Governor
Dave Heineman proclaimed October
5 as “Fred Zwonechek” day across
Nebraska. Congratulations, Fred!