WASHINGTON (VR) – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) announced $1,941,340 in federal funding to promote increased safety for Virginia drivers and motorists.
“Last year, we saw nearly 5,000 crashes and 100 fatalities involving commercial motor vehicles on Virginia’s roads. We are pleased to know that these federal dollars will go towards promoting greater safety on roadways and helping prevent future tragedies,” said the Senators.
The funding will be distributed as follows:
· $105,807 for Chesterfield County to help reduce the number of overall commercial motor vehicle (CMV)-related crashes by funding overtime enforcement in high-crash corridors throughout the county.
· $614,871 for Virginia Tech to increase knowledge of safe driving practices among drivers, including newly licensed teens and older adults. This funding will allow Virginia Tech to conduct in-class demonstrations in 80 high school driver education programs between the fall of 2022 and the spring of 2024. It will also enable Virginia Tech to conduct monthly outreach for the Tips for Sharing the Road with Commercial Motor Vehicles website and conduct two seminars for American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) volunteer driver education instructors. Additionally, it will allow Virginia Tech to work with AARP communications and roadway safety teams to develop a series of articles covering the key strategies for sharing the road with trucks.
· $180,328 for Chesterfield County to increase the understanding of the factors that contribute to CMV crashes in Virginia and support traffic enforcement decisions to reduce CMV crashes. As part of this project, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) will conduct a CMV crash corridor and crash causation analysis. Following this analysis, VTTI will conduct a pilot test of traffic enforcement to try to reduce the contributing factors in one of the identified CMV crash corridors.
· $1,040,334 for the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles to enhance crash data analysis by improving and increasing the reporting of data. This data will be used to evaluate program effectiveness, identify problems and trends, help target spending, and ultimately reduce the number of CMV crashes currently occurring on Virginia roadways.
These grants were awarded through the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)’s High Priority Grant program – a competitive grant program designed to provide federal financial assistance to carry out activities and projects that augment motor carrier safety.
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