The Wisconsin Department of Transportation recently hosted safety leaders and advocates for the 50th annual Wisconsin Governor’s Conference on Highway Safety; an event focused on collaborative efforts to improve highway safety with a shared goal of zero preventable deaths on the state’s roads.
[Above photo by the Wisconsin DOT]
Presenters at the meeting highlighted the latest technologies and best practices to protect road users. Educational sessions and demonstrations covered a variety of topics, including law enforcement strategies, crash response and traffic incident management, engineering solutions, and data analysis, the agency said.
“This conference gives us the opportunity to collaborate and share new ideas,” noted Kristina Boardman, Wisconsin DOT’s secretary, in a statement.
“It is essential to keep transportation safety a top priority all across Wisconsin,” said Boardman, who also serves as the chair of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Committee on Safety. “Our longstanding partnerships with local communities and safety advocates allow us to work collectively toward this goal. Together, we can find ways to prevent crashes, maintain a safe transportation system and improve the lives of everyone in our communities.”
Wisconsin DOT’s Division of State Patrol Bureau of Transportation Safety has hosted the conference for half a century, focusing on collaboration between law enforcement and community partners to stop dangerous driving behaviors that put motorists, pedestrians and all road users at risk.
[Editor’s note: AASHTO is hosting its third annual Safety Summit and Peer Exchange October 27–30 at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans. This in-person meeting brings together state department of transportation leaders, managers, practitioners, and other transportation professionals from across the public, private, nonprofit, and academic sectors. Register for the 2025 Safety Summit by clicking here.]
The conference has developed over the years to meet evolving transportation needs and priorities, now centering around the “Safe System” approach, which empowers individuals and organizations to collectively work together to eliminate serious crash injuries.
“Over the past 50 years, the Governor’s Conference on Highway Safety has been a crucial meeting point where federal, state, county, Tribal and local transportation safety advocates find solutions to our shared challenges,” noted State Patrol Superintendent Tim Carnahan. “Working together goes beyond enforcement and education. Our partnerships will get us closer to zero deaths on Wisconsin’s roads.”
State departments of transportation engage in a host of efforts to improve roadway safety.
For example, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority recently launched a statewide campaign focused on getting all state residents to buckle their seat belts.
Continuing throughout September, the campaign – entitled “Never Skip the Click” – comes in response to Oklahoma’s low seat belt usage rate, currently just 86 percent, far below the national average of 91 percent.
“Seat belts save lives, and our new ‘Never Skip the Click’ campaign is about turning that one small action into a habit,” said Tim Gatz, Oklahoma DOT executive director, in a statement. “Nearly half of all fatal crashes involve someone not buckled up, and we can change that with two seconds and one click.”
Meanwhile, the Nebraska Department of Transportation launched what it called a new “community-driven” public safety initiative in the counties of York, Saline, and Douglas in August to boost seat belt use among what the agency calls “one of the hardest-to-reach” demographics – male pickup truck drivers, aged 18 to 55 years in age.
And in February, the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Colorado State Patrol unveiled a goal of reducing the number of traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries statewide by 22.5 percent by fiscal year 2027 compared fiscal year 2023 through a wide set of tactics and strategies; from deploying speed cameras in highway work ones to a greater focus on motorcycle safety.
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