Idaho

Transportation Department

4/26/2010






2010 Highway Safety Summit features crash test dummies: up close and personal

Boise - Turns out, those crash test dummies are a pretty smart way to test and enhance motorist safety. Pamela Holt, a nationally known speaker and activist for laws to improve occupant protection, is the keynote presenter at this year's Highway Safety Summit scheduled for Wednesday, April 28, at the Grove Hotel in downtown Boise.

The summit is a forum for highway safety professionals including law enforcement, city and county officials, educators and counselors, traffic safety engineers, emergency responders and all other traffic safety advocates to share ideas, gain insight on traffic safety issues, program ideas and solutions.

The event is hosted by the Idaho Transportation Department Office of Highway Operations and Safety.

Pamela Holt is the trauma prevention coordinator at St. John's Injury Prevention Center in Springfield, Mo. She will speak at the summit from 9:15 a.m. to 10 a.m.

 

Also on the agenda, Trooper Quinn Carmack of Idaho State Police (ISP) will bring equipment that crash scene investigators use to reconstruct highway crashes. Trooper Carmack will explain and show the different types of resources available to law enforcement, such as a Nikon Total Station, Vericom Friction Computer, a Drag Box, and a Black Box.

 

Corporal Brandon Eller, also a certified in crash reconstruction, will explain the how a black box recorder works and the Crash Data Retrieval System.

"Each year, ITD and highway safety partners across the state gather to learn about and share ways to make the state's highways safer for motorists," said Mary Hunter, ITD highway safety manager. "Educational opportunities like this are important to achieving ITD's 'Towards Zero Deaths' goal of no fatalities on Idaho highways."

 

MEDIA OPPORTUNITY: Come check out crash scene reconstruction devices and learn the latest techniques law enforcement uses to figure out "what happened" after a crash occurs.

 

The 2010 Highway Safety Summit is from 8 a.m.  to 5 p.m.

 

Pamela Holt, Trooper Quinn Carmack and Corporal Brandon Eller of ISP will all be available for interviews and show and tell of crash scene devices during the lunch break (12:15 p.m. 1:30 p.m.).

 

To arrange for an interview, please call June Sparks in the ITD Office of Communications (334-8003) or Cecilia Arritola, Highway Safety Office (334-8112).