The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) is a nonprofit representing state and territorial highway safety offices that implement federal grant programs to address behavioral highway safety issues. September 11-15, 2021, GHSA brought together industry leaders to address the challenges created from the pandemic which changed the way people work, interact and travel.
This year’s theme was “Moving Mountains: Forging a New Traffic Safety Landscape.” General sessions considered the rise in speeding during the pandemic, the need to improve equity in traffic enforcement and how states, law enforcement and first responders can prepare for automated vehicles. Breakout workshops examined timely traffic safety issues such as impaired driving, speeding, pedestrian safety, equitable enforcement, and federal highway safety efforts.
“One of the themes we heard throughout the GHSA 2021 Annual Meeting in Denver was the extent of the impaired driving problem on our roadways,” said GHSA Executive Director Jonathan Adkins. “It will take a team effort to end drunk driving so everyone gets home safely. GHSA values the TEAM Coalition’s partnership and dedication to putting a stop to these preventable crashes, injuries and deaths. Everyone wins when fans celebrate responsibly.”
US DOT / NHTSA 2019 NATIONAL DATA:
- In 2019, 10,142 people were killed as a result of alcohol-related (BAC > 0.08) car crashes, a decrease of 5.3% from the 10,710 fatalities in 2018.
- Many, if not most of those lives would have been saved if people did not drive when they were impaired by alcohol or if they used sober, designated drivers or if they simply wore their seat belts.
- Statistics and research clearly show that 21-34 year old males are the demographic most likely to be involved in an automobile crash, drive when impaired by alcohol and fail to buckle up.
