4/9/2007
Summit to cover latest trends in traffic safety
BOISE - Nearly 200 safety professionals and law enforcement officials from throughout Idaho will assemble Wednesday (April 11) to learn more about the latest trends in traffic safety during the Idaho 2007 Highway Safety Summit.
The summit is sponsored by the Idaho Transportation Department's Office of Highway Operations and Safety and will be at the Doubletree-Riverside Hotel in Boise, 2900 Chinden Blvd. from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The educational event will focus on national trends in traffic safety and offers participants additional tools for promoting and enforcing community traffic safety laws.
Participants will include representatives from the Idaho State Police, county sheriffs' offices and local law enforcement agencies as well as other organizations involved in safety issues.
Program highlights include:
- Motor vehicle crash expert Rob Kaufman, Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center, Seattle, will talk about how seat belts and airbags save lives.
- Injury Prevention Liaison Max Sevareid, also with Harborview, will show the costs of unbuckled motor vehicle crash occupants and the importance of enforcement
- Dr. Mary F. Holley, founder and director of Mothers Against Methamphetamine, will discuss her book "Crystal Meth: They Call it Ice" and the drug's implications for the future.
- Strategies for reducing impaired driving will be presented by Jared Olson, Idaho's first Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor (TSRP).
- A report from the Idaho Seat Belt Coalition, a review of Idaho's highway safety mobilizations, a federal perspective on Idaho's traffic safety situation, and analysis of the state's motor vehicle crash statistics also will be presented.
Each day, six Idahoans are killed or seriously injured in traffic crashes. Society pays 85 percent of the related medical costs for individuals involved in crashes. These costs are passed on to the public through higher insurance premiums, taxes and increased charges for medical services.