The National Traffic Safety Board is hosting their first-ever two-day forum focused on eliminating substance-impaired driving. Reaching Zero is being held May 15-16 in Washington, D.C., where representatives from academia, research and advocacy organizations, industry, and state and federal agencies will attend and serve as panelists. The goal of the forum is to identify actions needed to eliminate substance-impaired related deaths and injuries on American roadways.
The two-day event will be webcast life at http://bit.ly/fzFiOW, and an archive of the webcast will be available on the NTSB website for three months following the event.
According to the NTSB, while traffic deaths from all causes have dropped substantially since 2005, the percentage of those killed involving a substance-impaired driver has remained unchanged for more than a decade, accounting for one-third of traffic fatalities. The forum is aimed at evaluating actions needed to eliminated impaired driving deaths and injuries.
One of the most notable items on the agenda is the commemoration of the 24th anniversary of the deadliest impaired driving crash in U.S. history. The crash, on May 14, 1988, in Carrollton, Kentucky, involved a repeat drunk driver who crashed into a school bus filled with members of a Kentucky church youth group en route to a day at Kings Island Amusement Park in Ohio. The accident killed 27 and injured 34 when occupants were unable to exit and the bus was engulfed in flames. Only 6 escaped with no injuries. Reaching Zero will commemorate the event and screen a movie trailer of a documentary being developed by survivor Harold Dennis.
Tuesday’s forum will also feature renowned speakers and panelists who will provide:
- A current state-of-the-state on the scope of the alcohol and drug driving problem
- The challenges with data collection
- The latest on current interventions and how they’re performing in programs across the country
- Issues facing enforcement and the challenges that the judicial system faces dealing with substance-impaired drivers
As a company that has delivered a technology to help courts manage more than 225,000 alcohol-impaired drivers, AMS is pleased to have representatives from our industry relations team in attendance at the forum. Stay tuned for an update on today’s events and a look at the Day 2 Agenda!
