Georgia FY2019 Highway Safety Plan Annual Report

GEORGIA GOVERNOR’S OFFICE OF HIGHWAY SAFETY 2019 Annual Report Prepared by: Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety 7 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. SW, Suite 643 Atlanta, GA 30334 Phone: (404) 656-6996 | Fax: (404) 651-9107 www.gahighwaysafety.org Brian Kemp, Governor Allen Poole, Director of GOHS Jimmy Sumner, Deputy Director of GOHS Scarlett Woods, Division Director, Planning and Programs Eshon Poythress, Program Director, Strategic Highway Safety Plan Roger Hayes, Division Director, Law Enforcement Services Robin Bazemore, Division Director, Fiscal Services Highway Safety Grant Programs Jared Eaves, Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic (H.E.A.T) Amanda Jackson, Occupant Protection Kathryn Curtis, Young Adult/SADD/- Pedestrian/Bicycle/Motorcycle Powell Harrelson, High Visibility Enforcement Courtney Ruiz, Georgia Traffic Records Coordinator Josh Turner, Director, Georgia Driver’s Education Commission Statistical Analysis & Research Section Lila F. Ralston, Traffic Safety Research and Evaluation Group - University of Georgia Shenee Bryan, GOHS Epidemiologist TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................. i ABOUT GOHS ............................................................... 1 STATE PERFORMANCE MEASURES ............................... 4 Problem Identification .............................................................................. 4 2018-2019 Target Assessment Overview .................................................... 6 Performance Measure Trends & Projections ................................................. 8 PARTNERS & SAFETY PLANS ..................................... 20 FISCAL OVERVIEW .................................................... 24 PROGRAM AREAS ...................................................... 33 Planning & Administration (402 PA) ......................................................... 33 Motorcycle Safety .................................................................................. 35 Impaired Driving (Drug & Alcohol) ........................................................... 40 Teen Traffic Safety Program.................................................................... 62 Police Traffic Services ............................................................................ 74 Traffic Records ...................................................................................... 90 Speed Management ............................................................................. 107 Community Traffic Safety Program ........................................................ 117 Distracted Driving ................................................................................ 126 Non-Motorized (Pedestrians & Bicyclist) .................................................. 128 Occupant Protection (Adult & Child Passenger Safety) .............................. 157 Aggressive Driving ............................................................................... 176 Evidence-Based Enforcement ................................................................ 186 Communications (Media) ...................................................................... 197 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The mission of the Georgia’s Governor's Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) is to educate the public on highway safety issues and facilitate the implementation of programs that reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities on Georgia roadways. This annual report provides insight into Georgia’s progress in achieving traffic safety performance measure targets established in the 2019 Highway Safety Plan (HSP), an overview of the projects and activities supported under the Plan, and the amount of funds expended on each prioritized highway safety area and program. In 2018, Georgia experienced 1,504 traffic fatalities on public roadways. While the number of roadway fatalities have decreased by 2.3% (net 36 count decrease) in comparison to the previous year, GOHS recognizes the need to address specific causes of motor vehicle fatalities across the following traffic safety performance measures: unrestrained fatalities, alcohol-related fatalities, pedestrian fatalities, speed-related fatalities, motorcyclist fatalities, and bicyclist fatalities. SUMMARY OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS Hands-Free Law – Continuing Impact The Georgia Hands-Free Law went into effect July 1, 2018. In the law’s first 12 months, there were over 19,000 distracted driving convictions statewide. Beginning in FFY 2020, the state will conduct an observational survey of distracted driving behavior, which will provide more data on the effects of enforcement and education on distracted driving. Numetric Crash Query Tool The Numetric crash query tool should be widely available from GDOT by early 2020. This tool will greatly improve the ability of GOHS staff, SHSP Task Teams, GOHS grantees, and other traffic safety stakeholders to access customized data to support their countermeasures and education efforts. Child Safety Seat Caravan The 2019 Georgia Child Safety Seat Caravan was held in September in conjunction with National SafeKids Seat Check Saturday. During this week, Georgia held over 35 events across the state, educating 1,025 people. During the week 126 child passenger safety seat technicians checked 270 child safety seats, distributed 67 child safety seats, and took 26 child safety seats out of use. Page | i Highway Safety Conference In 2019, GOHS held the Highway Safety Conference in Savannah, Georgia. It was attended by 389 law enforcement, public health, colleges/universities, and non-profit organizations. This was an increase of 30% from the 2017 conference. Sessions included presentations on child passenger safety, legal updates, data, car fit, and more. Strategic Highway Safety Plan Summit The Summit was held on May 15, 2019 at the Central Georgia Technical College in Macon, GA. There were more than 100 highway safety advocates and partners in attendance to promote, work together, and improve traffic safety to reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities on Georgia roadways. Governor’s Challenge Governor's Challenge is designed to highlight outstanding achievements in highway safety enforcement and education. 2019 marked the 20th anniversary of the Georgia Governor's Challenge, an annual banquet hosted by the Governor's Office of Highway Safety. The awards program recognizes statewide law enforcement agencies in nine different categories based on department size, as well as in several other specialty categories. Winners were announced during the awards banquet in Macon, GA on September 18, 2019. Added Funding Ten FFY 2019 Law Enforcement grants were amended to increase each grant’s overall budget by $1,000-$2,000 in the Travel category to facilitate the attendance of additional officers to the 2019 GOHS Highway Safety Conference. Although staff shortages and other challenges prevented some agencies from taking advantage of this funding, a total of 12 additional officers from 7 agencies were able to attend the conference. 2019 Georgia Traffic Records Assessment Fixing America’s Safety Surface Transportation Act (FAST ACT) legislation requires States to conduct or update an assessment of its highway safety data and traffic records system every 5 years in order to qualify for 405(c) grant funding. These assessments help States identify areas of high performance and areas in need of improvement in addition to fostering greater collaboration among data systems. Georgia’s most recent Traffic Records Assessment was completed on June 17, 2019 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Technical Assessment Team. Out of 328 questions, Georgia met the advisory ideal for 144 questions (44%), partially met the Advisory ideal for 58 questions (18%) and did not meet the Advisory ideal for 126 questions (38%). The recommendations and considerations Page | ii outlined within this assessment were utilized as a foundation during the State data improvement program strategic planning process and the development of the FY19- FY20 Traffic Records Strategic Plan performance measures. CHALLENGES Hurricane Michael Hurricane Michael tore through Southwest Georgia October 10-11, 2018, causing billions of dollars in losses and disrupting activities for many GOHS grantees as they scrambled to manage evacuation traffic, blocked roads, storm-related crashes and other challenges. Federal Government Shutdown Of 95 external grants funded for FFY 2019, 27 reported that their activities were affected by the federal government shutdown (Dec. 22, 2018-Jan. 25, 2019), some for more than one month. The effects of the shutdown included cancelled Traffic Enforcement Network meetings, delayed or canceled outreach events, delayed purchase and distribution of items and equipment, canceled travel, and canceled enforcement checkpoints. Some grants missed milestones due to the shutdown, although some of the missed milestones were made up later in the grant year. This unusual and unforeseen challenge should be kept in mind when evaluating grant performance. Ransomware Attack In July 2019 a ransomware attack severely affected crash reporting by the Department of Public Safety. In addition to losing access to existing electronic data, the Georgia State Patrol, which works roughly half the crashes in the state each year, had to switch to handwritten reports for the remainder of the year. Traffic court cases and car insurance claims were severely delayed. All DPS computers were taken offline and all computers and devices are being scanned for malware before

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