With the passage of the Safe, Accountable Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act-A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), Congress challenged states by calling for the development of comprehensive Strategic Highway Safety Plans (SHSP’s) aimed at reducing deaths and injuries associated with traffic crashes. The goal is to lower the number of traffic fatalities nationwide. The strategy is to bring together the four safety components, engineering, enforcement, education, and emergency medical services (“4 E’s”) in each state to implement a comprehensive strategic plan.
Georgia’s traffic fatality rate has closely resembled the national highway fatality rate for several years. Georgia experienced an increase of 103 highway fatalities in 2005, and the statewide fatality rate increased from 1.46 in 2004 to 1.54 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 2005. The national fatality count during the same period is 43,443, up from 42,836 in 2004 - an increase of 607 fatalities. Georgia’s increase accounts for 17% of the national increase. This distinction highlights Georgia’s need to seriously consider new approaches and comprehensive highway safety initiatives to reduce motor vehicle crashes, injuries, and fatalities.
Georgia’s highway fatalities peaked in 1973 at 1,928. Specific evaluations are needed to identify which actions are most effective in Georgia. For example, fatalities on state routes only increased by 3% (1102 to 1134) from 2004 to 2005, fatalities on non-state routes increased by 13% (539 to 610). This indicates new strategies are needed to affect the climb in highway fatalities. In 2000 dollars, the costs of traffic crashes, injuries, and deaths exceed $7.8 billion per year.
In an effort to create and support a strategic highway safety plan, the highway safety partnerships established a leadership team, working groups, data analysis team and highway safety emphasis area task teams. The teams are charged with timely efforts to identify problems and develop action plans.
Georgia’s first Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) was drafted with a current data analysis report. (2005 and previous trend data.) Some data categories track the number of crashes while others track the number of fatalities. Georgia’s SHSP also includes a review of existing highway safety plans in Georgia and incorporates those existing highway safety plans into the SHSP. The action plans within the existing highway safety shall continue to represent the SHSP actions. In addition, important public safety issues were evaluated and prioritized in order to develop Georgia’s Key Emphasis Areas (KEA’s). Once the Key Emphasis Areas were established, these were then validated based on “four dimensions.” The four dimensions are defined under the section designated “Prioritization Using Georgia Crash Data.” The SHSP recognizes “Current Strategies.” These are current efforts in place for the reduction of crashes. Along with the current strategies, the SHSP lists “Future Opportunities” which are considerations for possible future strategies. The future opportunities also provide ideas for ways to combine strategies and identify new joint countermeasures to reduce the increasing deaths on Georgia’s roadways.
Georgia's Goal
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ (AASHTO) national safety goal changed from reducing the fatality rate to 1.0 between 1998 and 2008 to reducing highway fatalities by 1,000 per year. The current Georgia statewide goal is a fatality rate of 1.0 by 2010; in 2006 our highway fatality rate was 1.49. Georgia developed a new statewide highway safety goal expressed by a fatality reduction number. The basis to consider and convert the Georgia goal is to align the goal with the newly established national goal.
The SHSP Safety Program Leadership (SPL) considered the Georgia contribution to achieving the national goal. The three year average (04’ – 06’) for Georgia fatalities (1,696/year) is approximately 3.9 % of the national fatality average of 42,996. Georgia would need annually to reduce highway fatalities by 39 to provide an equitable contribution to reducing the national fatality number. However, Georgia wants to do more than simply its proportional share in reducing the nation’s fatalities and therefore strives to reduce statewide fatalities by an additional four percent above the 39 fatality target, resulting in a goal of 41 fewer fatalities per year. Since many factors contribute to yearly variations in statewide fatality numbers, Georgia will evaluate its progress using three-year averages through 2012. Therefore, for the period of time from 2009 through 2012, Georgia will strive to reduce highway fatalities to an annual average of 1,498 or fewer.
“Every Life Counts – Strive for Zero Deaths and Injuries on Georgia Roads.”
Likewise, Georgia’s mission is all inclusive of the highway safety stakeholders and road users. It is consistent with Governor Sonny Perdue’s priorities to be the best managed State in the nation and to be a safe, educated, healthy and growing Georgia.
“Georgia’s mission is to continue to strengthen initiatives in education, engineering, enforcement and emergency medical services to eliminate crashes, injuries, and deaths to have the safest roads in the nation.”
Georgia’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) provides a review of Georgia’s highway safety planning as well as existing plans in agencies throughout Georgia. The SHSP followed the Integrated Safety Management Process (ISMP) recommended by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program’s (NCHRP) Report 501. Georgia’s SHSP was created with the guidance of the American Association of Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) SHSP.
Georgia highway safety leaders launched the comprehensive planning effort by committing to funding an Operations Manager position and related planning expenses. Georgia created a specialized position and interagency agreement to provide day-to-day oversight of the SHSP.
The early SHSP leaders include Governor Sonny Perdue and his policy advisers, Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS), and Department of Public Safety (DPS). In mid-2005, the leaders committed to a formal intergovernmental agreement between the GDOT and the GOHS. This agreement sets out the structure and funding of the planning expenses associated with developing Georgia’s SHSP for the next three years. The expenditures flow through GDOT and onto GOHS to cover these costs. Furthermore, the agreement provides that the organizational structure shall be established in accordance with the Integrated Safety Management Process. The Georgia SHSP structure is built from all of Georgia’s highway safety stakeholders, leaders, administrations and operations. The structure includes key emphasis areas and corresponding task teams.
The Integrated Safety Management Process identifies six steps to follow to progress from the planning phase to action or implementation phases with detailed descriptions of all SHSP participants’ responsibilities. These are:
› Review highway safety information.
› Establish emphasis area goals.
› Develop objectives, strategies, and preliminary action plans to address the emphasis areas.
› Determine the appropriate combination of strategies for identified emphasis areas.
› Develop detailed action plans.
› Implement the action plans and evaluate performance.
Georgia highway safety partners are engaged in developing objectives, strategies and preliminary action plans to address KEA’s. This includes determining an appropriate combination of criteria for strategies, detailed action plans, implementation of the SHSP, and an evaluation process.
Georgia regularly considers AASHTO’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan guidance and direction for planning, deployment, and evaluation of effective countermeasures that have the greatest impact. The AASHTO analyzed highway safety data to determine the “scope of the problem” and to develop Key Emphasis Areas. Additionally, the NCHRP developed Implementation Guides for each of the KEA’s. These Guides contain innovative countermeasures that supplement Georgia’s current strategies.
The Georgia SHSP Working Group considers the latest highway safety data in order to propose recommendations to the Safety Program Leadership (SPL) for further input and adoption. All reviews considered at least three years of data through 2005.
The ISMP emphasizes strong leadership and executive level involvement. This is essential to maintain the commitment and momentum to develop, implement, and sustain a comprehensive highway safety plan. Georgia, at the direction of Governor Sonny Perdue, organized its SHSP executive team establishing the Safety Program Leadership. The SPL members represent federal, state, and local agencies as well as private associations. As the ISMP recommends, decision makers accept the responsibility to participate first hand. The Safety Program Leadership is committed to the successful implementation and perpetual development of the SHSP. The SPL shall meet at least quarterly to direct the progress of the SHSP. The SHSP shall be updated annually and submitted to Governor Perdue.