RALEIGH – The N.C. Governor’s Highway Safety Program is awarding more than $23 million in community-based grants to state and local transportation safety initiatives.
“Everyone has a right to travel safely on North Carolina’s roads,” said Mark Ezzell, director of the N.C. Governor’s Highway Safety Program, part of the N.C. Department of Transportation. “These grants will help communities throughout the state ensure safe transportation for all of our citizens.”
Most of the 108 grants will fund initiatives that address impaired driving, bicycle and pedestrian safety, and traffic safety improvements. Twenty new grants will be awarded to police departments, sheriff’s offices, nonprofit organizations and research centers. These grants will:
- Promote young driver safety by creating ‘Time to Drive,’ an online training program that gives parents evidence-based tools to improve the supervision and management of new teen drivers.
- Protect first responders through a grant to the NC Towing & Recovery Professionals to increase public awareness of the Move Over Law, which protects state troopers, law enforcement officers, emergency and utility workers stopped along the side of highways. State law requires drivers to slow down or move to another lane when approaching a parked emergency vehicle on the shoulder.
- Creating drivers’ education resources in underserved communities by funding the Street Safe Lifesaving Driving Experience to use bilingual instructors and materials to reach the underserved Hispanic community in New Hanover County.
- Expand law enforcement resources in communities most impacted by traffic crashes. Over half of GHSP’s grants are to state and local law enforcement agencies to help them catch unsafe drivers and educate their community about road safety.
A full list of this year’s grants can be found here.
Many of the grants are used as seed money to jumpstart new traffic safety programs. In most cases, the grantee provides a portion of the project costs and is expected to continue the program after GHSP funding ends.
In January, NC GHSP will be accepting grant applications for the 2025 federal fiscal year, which begins October 1, 2024.