Background: State organizations carry out a number of independent safety initiatives that individually help to reduce injuries and fatalities on highways. However, because highway safety responsibilities are divided among multiple agencies (DOT, motor vehicles, state police, etc.), most states do not have a comprehensive strategic approach. Many initiatives focus only on those strategies that the particular agency is responsible for implementing and do not effectively address the entire safety problem. A further concern is the effective coordination of safety efforts outside of the state highway system. Thus, the development of a coordinated, comprehensive management approach to integrate engineering, education, and enforcement efforts that more effectively addresses major crash problems will likely result in a greater reduction of overall injuries and deaths.

NCHRP Project 17-18(5), Integrated Management Process to Reduce Highway Injuries and Fatalities Statewide, has developed a management process that addresses major highway-related crash problems by effectively integrating engineering, education, and enforcement, regardless of where these responsibilities may reside within a governmental organization. There is a need to provide technical assistance to the states to assist them in integrating all or part of the integrated safety management process into their existing processes.

Objective: The objective of this project is to provide technical assistance to state departments of transportation to implement an integrated management process for reducing injuries and fatalities on a statewide basis.

Tasks: The research included the following tasks: (1) Make initial contacts/visits (if necessary) with the participating states to determine the status of their safety management process and to identify the areas for potential discussion. (2) Develop workshop materials that are tailored to the state needs identified in Task 1. (3) Conduct the workshops and provide follow up technical assistance as needed. (4) Prepare letter type reports for each workshop outlining the accomplishments and items that would be of use to other agencies in implementing the integrated safety management process. (5) Conduct a follow up contact with the states approximately 6-9 months after the workshop to provide any additional support and to determine the level of implementation.

Status: All work has been completed.

Product Availability: This project provided technical assistance to a number of states to assist them in developing their strategic highway safety plans.