COM 0632.000 2008-2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Progress Is Being Made and There Is a Lot More Work To Be Done In 2001, North Hawaii Outcomes Project (NHOP) identified that the annual age- adjusted death rate from traffic-related crashes in North Hawaii and Hawaii County, between 1990 - 2000, was nearly three times higher than the State rate. Further investigation through the Department of Health Injury Prevention Division, confirmed that the Hawaii County traffic-related death rate was disproportionately high and that there was no known focused or collaborative effort at that time to reduce the high traffic-related death rate in Hawaii County. In order to understand the complex causes and engage stakeholders to addresses the causes, NHOP invited key Traffic Safety stakeholders to the first meeting in January 2003. This prompted the formation of a committed team known as the Motor Vehicle Crash Reduction Group (MVCRG). With facilitation from NHOP, this group has: ,/ Raised awareness of the high traffic-related death rates in Hawaii County. ,/ Raised grant funding for a Hawaii County traffic safety coordinator. ,/ Developed consensus on Recommendations to the Mayor. ,/ Identified a focus on reducing impaired driving, since impaired driving is a leading cause of traffic-related fatalities in Hawaii County. ,/ Identified and supported evidence-based counter measures including high visibility enforcement of driving under the influence (DUI) laws. ,/ Identified key barriers to improvement and strategies to reduce those barriers including: o Training police in drug recognition evaluation (DRE), o Training prosecutors and judiciary in enforcement of DUllaws, and o Improving the collaboration between police, ER staff and lab to test for impaired driving. ,/ Developed consensus on new traffic safety legislation including: o Graduated licensing, child safety seat requirement and streamlining DUI arrests. o Higher penalties for excessive speeding, high blood alcohol levels, and drivers under 21 years of age under the influence of alcohol and / or drugs. ,/ Supported a new grant for court monitoring of DUI arrests in order to gather data on DUI conviction rates. ,/ Identified data inconsistencies and developed an interagency data work group. ,/ Actively participated to develop the Hawaii Strategic Highway Safety Plan and Implementation. See http://hltap.eng.hawaiLedu/shsp/SHPSP2007-2012.pdf ,/ Developed consensus on performance measures and benchmarks for improvement. Tracking progress through monitoring both performance measures and targeted benchmarks will help to provide essential feedback about what is working and where additional improvements are needed. Progress is being made and there is still a lot more work to be done. 2 . Motor Vehicle Crash Reduction Group Efforts [ r '- [ [ t- !~ [" L L [ [ r r L L r L roo I l-