UA Engineering Researchers Instrumental in Alabama Traffic Safety Summit

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Two University of Alabama College of Engineering researchers have been instrumental in planning “Safe Home Alabama,” a traffic safety summit focused on Alabama’s strategic highway safety plan. The summit will be June 29 at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Montgomery.

The focus of “Safe Home Alabama” is reviewing the state’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan. In 2005, traffic crashes took the lives of 1,134 Alabama residents and injured 44,158 people. In an attempt to reduce these horrific numbers, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials adopted a safety plan and identified Alabama as a “lead state” for individual emphasis areas.

The development of Alabama’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan was managed by Dr. Dan Turner, professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the University Transportation Center for Alabama. Five focus areas have been identified in the plan, including emergency medical services, restricted drivers, safety legislation, risky driving and run-off-road crashes.

Turner will be delivering the update about Alabama’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan. Dr. David Brown, professor of computer science and director of development of UA’s CARE Research & Development Laboratory, will address risky driving behavior in the state.

Gov. Bob Riley will be the keynote speaker addressing the traffic safety summit at lunch.

Participants completing the traffic safety summit will receive 0.7 Continuing Education Units (CEUs). A certificate of participation will be issued to all registered attendees.

“Safe Home Alabama” is sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration and the Alabama Department of Transportation.

Partners of the program include the Administrative Office of Courts, the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, the Alabama Department of Public Safety, UA’s CARE Research & Development Laboratory, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Auburn University’s Alabama Technology Transfer Center and the University Transportation Center for Alabama.

The University Transportation Center for Alabama conducts transportation education, research and technology transfer activities utilizing faculty members and students from The University of Alabama, The University of Alabama at Birmingham and The University of Alabama in Huntsville. UTCA’s mission is to advance technology and expertise in the multiple disciplines that comprise transportation through the mechanisms of education, research and technology transfer while serving as a university-based center of excellence. Additional information is available at http://utca.eng.ua.edu.

UA’s CARE Research & Development Laboratory uses leading edge technologies to offer products and specialized software development services in a variety of areas, particularly traffic safety and law enforcement. The CARE software developed at CRDL has been implemented in nine states for traffic records analysis.

CRDL has designed an electronic citation application for use by law enforcement officers in the state of Alabama. Additionally, the CRDL routinely provides a variety of safety studies and planning documents, such as the Crash Facts Books and Highway Safety Plans that are available on their web site at http://care.cs.ua.edu.