The safety campaign will address four key areas: distracted driving, impaired driving, speeding/aggressive driving and bike and pedestrian safety
HOUSTON, TX – The Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) will launch its first transportation safety campaign, which will address the critical public safety threat on regional roadways: car, bike and pedestrian crashes and fatalities.
In 2018, there were 762 fatalities and 3,443 serious injuries in the region from motorized and non-motorized crashes, according to H-GAC’s recently published mobility report. While these numbers are a slight decline from 2017 crash statistics, the Houston-Galveston area still remains one of the deadliest regions for drivers in the U.S., according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
“The health of our community and the vitality of the region’s economy depend on safe and efficient travel,” H-GAC Transportation Multimodal Planning Manager Allie Isbell said. “The current state of our roadways presents a serious public safety risk. While we’ve made strides in improving roadway safety, there’s still room for our region to improve.”
H-GAC compiled the following crash data from 2016 in its latest regional safety plan:
- 30% of the region’s crashes were caused by speeding/aggressive driving
- Distracted driving was responsible for 10% of region’s crash fatalities
- Impaired driving was the leading cause of motor vehicle crash fatalities, at 45%
- 26% of regional fatalities were caused by bicycle and pedestrian crashes
The regional campaign, which will consist of radio ads, billboards, and social media outreach, has been in development since the start of the year and aims to reach regional drivers, bikers and pedestrians in a unique way.
“We know we have to take a different approach for this transportation safety campaign,” Isbell said. “This campaign will call on each of us to make safer decisions on the road. Being known as one of the deadliest regions for traffic accidents drives our ambition for change. It’s up to us, as an entire region, to turn these numbers around and reduce crashes.”