Untitled Document

ITD, FHWA take highway safety message to fair crowds

To ITD Director Brian W. Ness,

The Idaho Division (Federal Highway Administration) wants to extend our appreciation to ITD for partnering with us to support the highway safety booth at the Western Idaho fair this year (Aug. 19-28). The highway safety booth was staffed during the fair with the goal of educating the public on various highway safety issues and increasing seat belt use. Currently, the belt usage rate in Idaho is approximately 79 percent, down from the high in 2006 of 80 percent.

As in previous years, a booth in the Expo Building was shared with the Division of Motor Vehicles. The Highway Safety side of the booth focused on highway safety. Volunteers distributed highway safety information and gave demonstrations on the importance of being properly restrained.

This involved putting two or more raw eggs in a “Barbie” car, buckling one in a seat belt and crashing it into a wall. The demonstration typically resulted in the unbuckled eggs being broken, and the restrained egg surviving the crash. The point was made that we need to be properly restrained to avoid unnecessary injury and death due to motor vehicle crashes.

For the first time, we included two driving simulators that demonstrated the effects of distracted and impaired driving. These were provided by the Nampa Police Department and the Idaho State Police These were very popular with the attendees and showed the importance of making wise driving choices.

Volunteers for the highway safety booth came from ITD, FHWA, ACHD, Mary Hunter, Boise Police Department, Nampa Police Department and the Idaho State Police. Ping Yerby from the Office of Highway Safety was especially helpful in staffing and finding volunteers to work in the booth. Kelly Campbell and Lisa Losness were very helpful in staffing and preparing materials for the booth. We also want to extend a big thanks to the Division of Motor Vehicles, especially Barry Takeuchi, for their assistance in staffing the highway safety booth. The DMV covered some of the shifts we were not able to fill.

With the participation of all the volunteers, we reached an estimated 3,000 people with a seat belt/highway safety message and broke 1,380 eggs. A number of people that visited the booth expressed their gratitude for the highway safety materials and the effective safety demonstrations.

Peter Hartman,
Idaho Division Administrator,
Federal Highway Administration