$36M in highway safety grants awarded
ALBANY, N.Y. » The Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee recently announced that more than $35.9 million in federal highway safety grants have been awarded to 519 programs throughout New York state.
The purpose of this grant program is to provide funds to local, state and not-for-profit agencies for projects that improve highway safety and reduce deaths and serious injuries due to crashes.
The types of efforts funded include occupant protection; traffic enforcement; motorcycle safety; traffic records; community programs; programs that impact our younger drivers or older drivers; pedestrian safety; roadway safety and impaired driving.
“New York works tirelessly to improve the safety of motorists, passengers and pedestrians, and we proudly support these critical programs,” Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner and GTSC Chair Mark J.F. Schroeder said in a press relrease. “The funding supports innovative educational and enforcement initiatives that help improve the safety of all those using our roadways.”
The projects chosen focused on three types of initiatives: police traffic services, child passenger safety and highway safety.
A total of $31.2 million has been designated for highway safety grants provided to state, local and not-for-profit programs that cover a variety of traffic safety efforts including education initiatives, traffic records improvements, training, crash reconstruction, and railroad crossing safety. In addition, the programs cover distracted driving, slow-moving vehicles, and
drowsy and impaired driving. These initiatives focus on protecting child passengers, pedestrians, bicyclists, wheel-sport athletes, motorcyclists, teens and older drivers.
Another $2.5 million is allotted for police traffic services, supporting initiatives by law enforcement agencies to conduct traffic enforcement campaigns based on crash data. This includes participation in the national Click It or Ticket seat belt mobilization and other enforcement initiatives to target unsafe speed, aggressive and distracted driving, and to enforce seat belt and child safety restraint laws.
There will also be $2.2 million used for child passenger safety, supporting child passenger safety education, training for child passenger safety technicians, conducting car seat checks statewide, operating a car seat distribution program for low-income families, and establishing permanent child safety seat fitting stations.
In the state’s regional breakdown for this grant funding, the Capital Region has been approved for $1,835,436.
The funding, which is provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is administered by the GTSC.
More information about GTSC is available online at trafficsafety.ny.gov.