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Familiar face becomes newest grants officer
in Office of Highway Safety

If you’ve spent any time on the second floor at Headquarters, you’ve probably run into Tabitha Smith. For more than seven years, she’s greeted visitors to ITD’s executive suite with a warm smile and friendly personality. For the last month, she has taken her passion for highway safety to a whole new level as the newest grants/contracts officer in the Office of Highway Safety.

We had a chance to sit down with Tabitha to share her thoughts on her new job and how she’s going to help keep Idaho’s roads and highways safe.

What is it about highway safety that excites you most?
Showing up to work every day with a shared mission to save lives on Idaho’s roads! The ability to affect change in our state is very fulfilling.

You’ve been at OHS for just over a month now – what has the transition been like for you?
You know, the transition has been surprisingly smooth. I think there are a couple of factors in that, including the support of the executive team in my move and the warm welcome I received from everyone in OHS. All of the grants officers have been super helpful and patient with all of my questions. I felt comfortable with the whole team almost immediately. It feels like home!

What are some of the programs you’ll be working on at OHS?
I am the program manager over the Distracted Driving and Motorcycle Safety programs, as well as the Alive at 25 program.

You don’t come across as the motorcycle riding type – what’s it been like working on and learning about those programs?
Haha! Yeah, I guess I’m not really the motorcycle-riding type, although I would one day like to be! It’s been fun working on that program, especially from a media perspective. I’ve enjoyed trying to see life through the eyes of a rider – the whole motorcycle riding culture is very interesting! I love what a tight-knit group it is. I’m really looking forward to working with Idaho STAR and all of our other partners who are so dedicated to motorcycle safety. I’m looking forward to learning from all of them.

ITD has put a big focus on engaged driving through Shift – what do you plan to do to continue to grow that program?
Ah, Shift… What an amazing program it is! There are a couple of groups I’d like to target to continue to grow the program. I’d love to get more involvement with high schools. In the next month, we’re partnering with COMPASS to bring in a distracted driving speaker who will be presenting at some high schools in the area - I’d like to do so much more of that over the next year! Another group I’m interested in targeting is parents of young children. Kids learn from the actions they observe in their parents, so I’d like to work on more parents shifting their behaviors to engaged driving. I’m looking forward to Shift making great strides in the next year!

Alive at 25 is a wonderful program – as a mother of a young, future driver has this program changed the way you talk to your kids about the responsibilities that come with driving?
Don’t remind me that my teenager will be driving next year! In all seriousness, I’ve been impressed with both of my kids (ages 14 and 9) and their newly-acquired awareness. It happened kind of organically, I guess. I’m so passionate about my job that I see it everywhere when we’re driving through town, so I naturally point out when drivers are texting and distracted, or aggressive and speeding or running red lights, or not wearing their seatbelts. I don’t necessarily have deliberate conversations with them, but discussions about the behaviors and the consequences of those behaviors do occur because I talk about it all of the time. My kids have heard it so much in the past month they have started pointing behaviors out to me now! Also, I’ve already informed my daughter she’ll be attending Alive at 25 following completion of her driver’s education course next year. Proud mom moment: her teenage daughter is excited to attend!