DOT provides $14.7 million for rural road safety
58 Commercial Carrier Journal October 2008 safety F ourteen states, three counties and two parishes competed for and will receive $14.7 million in Rural Safety Innovation Program (RSIP) funds to improve safety on rural roads, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced in late August. Rural roads carry less than half of America's traffic but account for more than half of the nation's vehicular deaths. Last February, DOT launched the Rural Safety Initiative to address this issue. Though last year's fatality rate 1.37 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled is the lowest in the nation's history, the 41,059 fatalities in 2007 remain entirely too high, U.S. Transportation Secretary Thomas Barrett said. The RSIP program will help us put a national focus on a local problem. The awards, made possible by funds from DOT's Delta Region Transportation Development Program and Intelligent Transportation Systems Program, are part of a $287 million effort to help local and state governments reduce crashes on dangerous rural roads. RSIP recipients include: Arizona DOT, $480,000, Interstate 10 severe weather warning system; Arkansas Highway and Transportation Dept., $1,540,786, cable median barrier on I-55 in Crittenden County; California DOT, $1,575,175, coordinated speed management in work zones; California/El Dorado County, $304,000, intersection safety using ITS technologies; Colorado DOT, $324,390, speed management on U.S. 160, Wolf Creek Pass Snow Shed; Colorado DOT, $140,749, speed information on approach to curves on U.S. 50 in Fremont County; Illinois DOT, $344,000, rural curve improvement strategy on county and township highways; Illinois DOT, $40,000, vehicle-actuated advanced warning on curves; Iowa DOT, $500,000, traffic and criminal software improvements; Kansas DOT, $284,000, dynamic message signs and road weather information system; Louisiana/Rapides Parish, $1,140,943, roadway departure crash reduction action plan; Louisiana/Grant Parish, $597,954, roadway departure crash reduction action plan; Louisiana DOT, $1,925,983, rural intersection safety implementation plan; Minnesota DOT, $160,000, installation of dynamic curve warning systems; Mississippi DOT, $1,925,983, low-cost road-departure crash countermeasures; Mississippi/Hinds County, $303,552, low-cost road-departure crash countermeasures; Missouri DOT, $800,000, dynamic message signs and closed-circuit TV on I-57, I-55 and U.S. 60; South Carolina DOT, $840,000, to decrease hydroplaning on U.S. 25 in Greeneville County; Tennessee DOT, $650,800, sign inventory and assessment/management system project; Washington/King County, $202,400, advanced curve warning and driver feedback signs; and Wisconsin DOT, $609,000, rural thru-stop intersection crash prevention. For more information, go to www.dot.gov/affairs/ruralsafety. DOT funds rural road safety Department to spend $14.7 million on projects in 14 states crashes where a vehicle operator had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher dropped 3.7 percent in 2007 to an estimated 12,998, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in late August. While 43 percent of auto-mobile crashes involved an alcohol-impaired driver, fewer than 1 percent of fatal crashes involving large trucks 40 out of 4,551 involved a truck driver meeting that BAC threshold. For more information, go to www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811016.PDF. David Kelly was appointed NHTSA's acting administrator by President Bush. Previously, Kelly was the agency's chief of staff, serv-ing as the top adviser to former Administrator Nicole Nason. Prior to joining NHTSA in July 2006, Kelly served as DOT's deputy assistant sec-retary for government affairs. Administration in late August ordered Autobuses Rio Verde of Irving, Texas, to cease operations after determining that the com-pany was affiliated with Green River Bus, which was ordered to cease operations in April. An investigation revealed that the two companies shared identification of officials and functions, physical addresses, vehicle ownership, employee identification and operational similarities. to DriverCare Risk Manager, its online fleet risk management service. The 7- to 10-minute lessons complement CEI's full-length driver training modules. in brief Rural roads carry less than half of America's traffic but account for more than half of the nation's vehicular deaths, according to USDOT.