MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY

Office of Traffic Safety

January 2013 Background
The Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) was created in response to the federal Highway Safety Act of 1966. Under that Act, states became eligible for federal assistance for state and community highway safety programs, provided they had an office with sufficient authority and resources to manage it. Despite great improvements in driver behaviors, vehicle design and equipment, roadway engineering, and enforcement strategies made since that time, traffic crashes continue to be the leading cause of death for Minnesotans from the age of one through thirty-four.

Mission
The mission of the OTS is to prevent traffic deaths and serious injuries by changing human behavior in Minnesota through policy development and support, stakeholder engagement, program delivery, leadership, and research and evaluation. Mindful that fulfilling the mission will take concentrated and coordinated efforts by a large number of traffic safety agents, the OTS has joined with other divisions of Public Safety, the departments of Heath and Transportation, and many other partners in the Toward Zero Deaths (TZD) program. The TZD mission is to create a culture in which traffic fatalities and serious injuries are no longer acceptable through the integrated application of education, engineering, enforcement, and emergency trauma services. The OTS believes that progress must be made on the following six values to accomplish our mission and achieve our long-term vision of zero traffic fatalities in Minnesota: Informed Public: A populace that sees traffic safety as an important health issue, supports safety legislation and enforcement, and understands the benefits of driving safely and the dangers of not doing so. Safety Partnerships: Traffic safety and injury prevention groups, organizations, and agencies that share our vision. Efficient/Effective Traffic Law Enforcement: A well-trained and well-equipped enforcement community that is motivated to enforce traffic safety laws. Improved Data and Records: Improvement of our crash database and other systems to provide reliable problem identification, project selection, and evaluation. Customer Service and Communication: Products and services are of high quality, useful, and make efficient use of resources. Well-managed/Innovative/Proactive Projects: Identification of improved and new solutions to long-standing problems and fast reactions to emerging problems.
445 Minnesota Street, Suite 150, St. Paul, Minnesota 55101-5150 Phone: (651) 201-7065 Fax: (651) 297-4844 TTY: (651) 282-6555 Web Site: ots.dps.mn.gov

Legislation
Traffic safety laws have a strong influence on bicyclists, pedestrians, and drivers and passengers behaviors. Recent legislation passed in Minnesota that has greatly contributed to the recent decreases in traffic deaths and serious injuries is summarized below. In 2008, the use of wireless communications devices (not including cell phones) to compose, read or send an electronic message while driving was made illegal. Stronger provisions of graduated drivers licenses went into effect in 2008, requiring teenagers to ease more slowly into the driving role. Booster seats were required for children between the ages of three and eight too big to fit most child seats and too small to fit seat belts in 2009. Failure to use a seat belt was made a primary offense (a reason for an officer to stop a vehicle) and extended to all positions in the vehicle equipped with a seat belt in 2009. In 2011, a law changing administrative sanctions for driving impaired was passed that provides offenders the ability to have full driving privileges reinstated earlier than before with the addition of an ignition interlock to the vehicles they drive. Ultimately it will decrease the number of people driving without a legal license and increase safe guards to the public against impaired driving.

Funding
The OTS does not receive any general fund dollars. The OTS does receive an annual allotment from the Trunk Highway Fund of $435,000, a required match which allows OTS to secure federal funds, grants and one-time monies that amount to approximately $20,000,000.00 in a year. The federal funds are from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a division of the federal DOT. A portion of the state and federal funding received supports an office staff of 20 positions who design, manage, and monitor the various traffic safety programs as well as provide research services. In addition to the federal funds and trunk highway funds, the OTS is responsible for overseeing the programs and expenditures from the dedicated state Motorcycle Safety Fund and the Child Restraint and Education Account.

Grants
In the current federal fiscal year 2013 OTS will award approximately 160 grants covering approximately 300 local and county agencies and non-profit agencies. In addition, 20 inter-agency grants will be awarded to state agencies that are managing and implementing statewide traffic safety programs or enhancing systems that support traffic safety programs. In federal fiscal year 2013, OTS will award approximately $ 15,000,000.00 in grants to other governmental units and non-profits.

TRAFFIC SAFETY PROGRAMS

The OTS administers federal and state funding to support programs that encourage responsible driving behaviors, to enforce traffic laws, and to inform the public on the best ways to reduce the risk of negative consequences for their actions. The vast majority of the federal funding received is distributed to state agencies, local units of government, and non-profit organizations.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Programs (NHTSA)

The NHTSA funding originates from a number of sections in the U.S. Department of Transportation authorization legislation, which requires each state to create and maintain a Governors Highway Safety Office. While the authorization for transportation programs is passed only once every five to seven years, each year Congress appropriates funding to it. On October 1, 2012 a new surface transportation bill labeled Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) went into effect. The new authorization combines all prior grant programs into two programs: the Section 402 State and Community Highway Safety grant programs and the Section 405 National Priority Safety Program. The basic NHTSA grant is from 23 USC, Section 402, Highway Safety Programs. The 402 Funds may be used in various programs including Occupant Protection, Impaired Driving, Police Traffic Services, Traffic Records, Community Programs, Roadway Safety and Motorcycle Safety.

Office of Traffic Safety

The new Section 405 program is divided into six incentive tiers covering occupant protection, traffic records, impaired driving, motorcycle safety, distracted driving, and Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) laws. States have to satisfy specific eligibility requirements in each tier before they can receive funding in that tier. States are also required to direct their federal behavioral highway safety resources toward evidence-based programs and in areas where data driven problem identification indicates that there is an issue in the state. Rules outlining the specific requirements are currently being drafted by the federal government. Below is a summary of major programs and projects funded by the office.

Law Enforcement and Prosecutor Training OTS provides training opportunities to law
enforcement and county and city attorneys including an annual webinar update on traffic safety legislative changes. Specific training for officers covers skills such as field sobriety tests, seat belt and child restraint use and enforcement, and Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE) training. DRE training equips officers with specialized knowledge on the physical effect of drug use and additional field tests to identify and remove those offenders from the roadway. OTS contracts with a Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor to provide support and assistance to all city and county prosecutors responsible for traffic violations, with an emphasis on the more complicated charges such as DWI and Criminal Vehicular Operation.

Roadway Safety and Hazard Elimination Roadway safety addresses problems that are related to
the roadway environment and constitutes OTS primary means of supporting engineering-based traffic safety solutions. This includes implementing relatively low cost safety improvements such as wider paint markings, cable median barriers, rumble strips, and safety edges. Since Minnesotas sanctions on repeat DWI offenders do not meet the congressionally set 164 rules, three percent of certain federal highway construction funds are transferred from the MnDOT to the OTS and half of those funds are returned to MnDOT for these roadway safety projects. Under MAP-21 those funds are directly allocated to the Minnesota Department of Transportation and will no longer pass through the Department of Public Safety.

TZD Law Enforcement Grants OTS provides grants through a Request for Proposal (RFP)
competitive process to local and county traffic law enforcement. All districts of the State Patrol receive funding through a grant negotiated between the two DPS divisions. The agencies combine additional high visibility enforcement with public information and media relations during 11 specified time periods throughout the year; always including the weeks around the December holidays, Independence Day, Memorial Day, and Labor Day. Agencies focus on impaired driving, restraint use, aggressive driving, speeding, the Ted Foss Move Over law, or the no texting law depending on the program calendar. Approximately 50 grants cover well over 290 individual agencies. OTS contracts with four retired officers to serve as law enforcement liaisons between OTS and local agencies, bringing our programs to them and their suggestions to us.

Traffic Safety Outreach OTS provides for communications with traffic safety partners and the
general public by creating and distributing materials. Media campaigns are produced and funding is dedicated to pay for air time to reach the target markets those least likely to conform to traffic safety laws in the areas of speed, impaired driving, failure to use seat belts and focusing attention on driving. Brochures, posters, and other collateral materials are produced and distributed through on-line order forms (at ots.dps.mn.gov click on educational materials). Kits containing ideas for events, sample news releases, and facts broken down to the city and county level are produced and available on-line for local enforcement agencies and other community partners to use before, during, and after the enhanced enforcement time periods. Meetings are convened eight times each year with traffic safety agencies, organizations, and advocates to share best practices and discuss collaborative opportunities. The annual TZD Conference brings state and local traffic safety partners and stakeholders together, to share multidisciplinary applications of research and best practices in the areas of education, enforcement, engineering, courts, and emergency medical services. The 2012 TZD Conference was attended by 955 people an all-time high.

Impaired Driving Programs OTS provides funding for a broad-range of programs aimed at reducing
impaired driving by a diverse population of drivers that range from the young and inexperienced to the hard core drunk driver. Pro-active programs include public education, media, and high visibility enforcement intended to send a clear message of the consequences for driving impaired. Other programs, such as ignition interlock and DWI courts, are designed to help reduce the likelihood of a Office of Traffic Safety 3

repeat DWI offender driving impaired. This funding was also used to augment state funding provided to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to create a system that allows law enforcement and the prosecuting authority the ability to electronically file a criminal complaint. That new system improves accuracy and creates efficiencies in the DWI charging process.

Occupant Protection Programs OTS supports efforts of the Child Passenger Safety (CPS) program
through the production and distribution of educational materials, training of CPS technicians and practitioners able to advise parents and care-givers on the correct use of child safety seats, and purchases and disseminates child safety seats for needy families throughout the state. All licensed daycare and foster care providers must complete Child Day Care Provider training in CPS safety to stay certified in Minnesota; this program provides that training. A CPS liaison provides local outreach and support in the northern third of the state. An annual seat belt observation survey is carried out to determine the statewide use rate as required by the NHTSA, as well as, use rates for different vehicle types, by gender, and age groups. Materials and media are used to target Minnesotans least likely to buckle up and more likely to die in crashes teens, young males, and residents in greater Minnesota. These populations represent more than two thirds of the traffic fatalities. The OTS has a number of free resources available for traffic safety partners and the general public on our website at ots.dps.mn.gov.

Data Systems OTS provides funding for Minnesota to improve the accessibility, reliability, and ability to
link traffic safety related data from various systems. The data systems of interest include the States traffic crash records, motor vehicle registrations, driver licensing, roadway information, citation records, and medical/hospital/EMS data. This funding supports effective traffic safety programs by improving the timeliness, accuracy, completeness, uniformity, compatibility, and accessibility of the states safety data necessary to identify Minnesotas most critical problems. Data defines resource and program priorities for local, state, and national traffic safety initiatives and allows evaluations of effectiveness to be conducted.

TZD Safe Roads Grants OTS provides grants to local coalitions through a Request for Proposal (RFP) competitive process to support local traffic safety efforts to address crashes using proven countermeasures. The coalitions publicize the enhanced enforcement efforts, conduct reviews of fatal crashes, encourage workplace traffic safety policies, and combat impaired driving in the non-metropolitan areas of the state. The OTS and MnDOT jointly fund part-time positions in the MnDOT districts to coordinate regional activities and provide assistance to newly forming coalitions. Motorcycle Safety Support OTS provides additional funding to the state motorcycle program from
NHTSA to conduct a targeted motorist awareness campaign in Minnesotas highest motorcycle crash counties and also enables the purchase and provision of motorcycles for Minnesotas rider training program.

State Programs
Child Passenger Safety (CPS) Provides dedicated funding from the Minnesota Child Restraint and
Education Account from fines collected for failure to comply with the child passenger safety law. This funding is used to distribute child restraints and related training to needy families. Grants to local programs provide the restraints and education that ensure the seats are used correctly to obtain the greatest safety benefits. The agencies must abide by the low-income guidelines for recipient selection.

Motorcycle Safety Provides funding from a dedicated portion of the receipts from the motorcycle
endorsement fee. Three major projects are conducted under this program. The rider training program provides a variety of novice and experienced rider training throughout the state. The endorsement program provides for evening motorcycle skills testing and third-party testing during the riding season. Finally, the public information and education program produces and distributes campaign materials designed to promote safe motorcycling.

Data Analysis and Evaluation

The projects OTS selects to conduct, and the strategies to use in them are supported by data analysis and evaluations conducted. While some evaluation work is done at the federal level, all of the analysis conducted to identify problems and select projects uses only Minnesota data. Three research analysts in Office of Traffic Safety 4

the OTS compile and publish Minnesota Motor Vehicle Crash Facts and Impaired Driving Facts. They partner with analysts in the Minnesota Department of Health to link hospital and crash data. They answer requests for crash data from private citizens, legislators, policy makers, the media, and governmental units. In addition, the OTS participates in and contributes to the national Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) database.

CONTACTS
Donna Berger, Director Office of Traffic Safety 445 Minnesota Street, Suite 150 St. Paul, MN 55101-5150 Phone: (651) 201-7061 donna.berger@state.mn.us Susie Palmer Office of Traffic Safety 445 Minnesota Street, Suite 150 St. Paul, MN 55101-5150 Phone: (651) 201-7071 susie.palmer@state.mn.us

Office of Traffic Safety