10/17/2005
Governors summit strives for Zero Deaths on highways
BOISE - A two-day governors summit planned this week in Boise will look for strategies to prevent fatal crashes on Idaho highways. More than 120 representatives of federal, state and local agencies are expected for the Governors Highway Safety Summit: Toward Zero Deaths, Wednesday and Thursday at Boise State University's Student Union Building.
The conference is more than a discussion of safety practices. It is a forum dedicated to finding solutions to the needless deaths on Idahos highways, roads and streets. Its premise is simple the loss of a single life in an automobile crash is one loss too many.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta characterized the problem of highway traffic deaths as a national epidemic. A report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicates that 42,800 individuals lost their lives on America's highways in 2004. That is roughly equivalent to the population of Coeur d'Alene.
More important, those figures represent a husband or father, a wife or mother, a son or daughter, or a child each individual death a tragic and unacceptable loss.
"We are in the midst of a national epidemic," Mineta said. "If this many people were to die from any one disease in a single year, Americans would demand a vaccine. The irony is, we already have the best vaccine available to reduce the death toll on our highways safety belts."
ITD Director Dave Ekern and Gov. Dirk Kempthorne consider the losses unacceptable.
"It is time to drive down the number of injuries and fatalities in Idaho. It is time to act decisively. It is time that highway safety becomes more than our highest priority that it becomes our greatest achievement," Ekern said.
How serious is the problem in Idaho? In 2004, 260 people were killed and 14,734 people were injured in traffic collisions. The fatality rate was 1.75 per 100 million Annual Vehicle Miles of Travel (AVMT) in Idaho in 2004. Idaho's fatality rate remains higher than the U.S. fatality rate. The U.S. fatality rate was 1.48 per 100 million AVMT in 2004.
Motor vehicle collisions cost Idahoans more than $1.65 billion in 2004. Fatal and serious injuries represented 73 percent of these costs.
The anticipated product of the summit will be a draft or framework for a comprehensive statewide safety plan that includes all private and public stakeholders in Idaho and to identify ways in which the plan can be implemented. Success will be measured in the number of lives saved.
Joining ITD in sponsoring the Zero Deaths safety summit are:
Idaho State Police
Federal Highway Administration
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Idaho Traffic Safety Commission
Local Highway Technical Assistance Council
Boise State University, and
University of Idaho
For more information about the conference, visit the Zero Deaths Web site: http://www.webs1.uidaho.edu/highway_safety/