U.S. Transportation Secretary Slater Announces Grants of $7.6 Million to 44 States to Improve Traffic Records

U.S. Transportation Secretary Slater Announces Grants of $7.6 Million to 44 States to Improve Traffic Records

Topics: Rodney E. Slater

U.S. Transportation Secretary Slater Announces Grants of $7.6 Million to 44 States to Improve Traffic Records

NHTSA
March 10, 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NHTSA 08-00
Friday, March 10, 2000
Contact: NHTSA, Tim Hurd, (202) 366-9550

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater today announced that 46 States and U.S. territories will share $7.6 million in grants help improve safety by developing or implementing strategies to improve traffic records systems.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) grants are being made under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) which provides a total of $32 million for traffic records over a five-year period.

"These grants will help improve safety, which is President Clinton's and Vice President Gore's highest transportation priority," Secretary Slater said. "Improved data will lead to better decisions in both government and industry on vehicle and highway safety issues."

These record systems are the means by which states identify problem locations, risk- prone drivers, weaknesses in the crash response systems, priorities for traffic law enforcement, and other areas in which improvements are needed.

"The goal of this program is to collect and analyze accurate, complete and timely information about crashes," Acting NHTSA Administrator Rosalyn G. Millman said. "This is a positive step in the upkeep of highway traffic records."

Implementation grants of $173,600 each were provided to 41 states and territories that have data record keeping systems in place. These include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, American Samoa, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mariana Islands, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.

Initiation grants of $96,480 each were provided to five states - Idaho, Illinois, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin - that are in the process of developing a strategic plan to implement a new data record system.

Millman said that all states and territories were eligible to apply, and all that applied received grants.

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