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Campaign launched to curb highway fatalities

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News from the Montana Department of Transportation

HELENA — Montana Department of Transportation Director Mike Tooley last week announced “Vision Zero,” a multi-pronged initiative with the ultimate goal of eliminating deaths and injuries on Montana highways.

To demonstrate the havoc that vehicle crashes can wreak, MDT also today introduced its Twisted Metal Sculpture Garden on the University of Montana campus. The exhibit features remnants of vehicles wrecked on Montana roads, along with audio stories of real Montana crash survivors. The exhibit encourages Montanans to share their own stories of lives shattered or saved on Montana highways by posting to #VisionZeroMT.

MDT reports that in the last 10 years 2,309 people died in vehicle crashes on Montana roadways, 492 of which were 18-to 25-year-olds — the age group with the highest fatality crash rate.

Reaching Montana’s young drivers will be key in eliminating deaths, Tooley explained. MDT reports that 85 percent of those 18-to 25-year-old fatalities in the last 10 years involved a crash with an impaired driver or occupants who were either not wearing their seat belts or wearing them incorrectly.

Vision Zero focuses on four emphasis areas:

• Education through public information campaigns during the busiest travel periods and local outreach through Buckle Up Montana, DUI Task Force and Safe On All Roads (SOAR) programs, including teen traffic safety educational programming.

• Enforcement of Montana seat belt and impaired driving laws by Montana Highway Patrol and local law enforcement agencies, whose presence reminds drivers and occupants to obey traffic laws. 

• Engineering of Montana roadways to ensure that Montana’s thousands of miles of state roads and highways are built and maintained with safety as the first concern.

• Emergency medical response adequately funded and equipped to respond to vehicle crashes with proper emergency response vehicles, training and medical equipment through the Emergency Medical Services Grant Program.

 

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