Wilmington - More than 900 national,
state and local traffic safety professionals convened this week in Wilmington
for the N.C. Traffic Safety Conference & Expo hosted by the North Carolina
Governor's Highway Safety Program (GHSP). The conference focused on strategies
for reversing traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries, seeking to
achieve a goal of eliminating roadway deaths.
"The objective of the conference is to bring together, educate and
leverage the multitude of traffic safety disciplines to ensure the safety of all
roadway users," said Mark Ezzell, director of the GHSP. "If everyone is talking
to one another and being educated about issues affecting traffic safety, it will
allow us as a community to be more effective at addressing the issue."
Conference participants were able to learn from leading experts in
the fields of distracted and impaired driving and walking; as well as child
passenger, pedestrian, bicycle, motorcycle, teen, and older driver safety; adult
occupant protection; vehicle technology; law enforcement; and commercial
vehicles. They discussed the latest research, evidence-based strategies, proven
countermeasures and promising new approaches in a series of 98 workshops.
The conference concluded with two sessions highlighting important
traffic safety issues. The first was "The Ups and Downs and Ins and Outs of
Traffic Fatalities in the U.S." presented by Robert Wunderlich, director for the
Center for Transportation Safety at Texas A&M Transportation Institute. The
second session was a discussion moderated by Meg Miller, program manager at the
National Highway Safety Traffic Administration on "Eliminating Distracted
Driving". It featured Dr. Paul Atchley, senior associate vice president and dean
of undergraduate studies at the University of South Florida, North Carolina
State Senator Mike Lee, and Russ Dubisky with the Insurance Federation of North
Carolina.
For more information, visit www.nctrafficsafetyconference.org.