Utah
SHSP Key Components
Emphasis Areas
- Continue or increase efforts to fund aggressive driving enforcement and educational campaigns.
Education
Educating novice and experienced drivers about the dangers of aggressive driving.
Support aggressive driving programs at high schools, businesses and community outreach events.
Increase involvement of emergency medical service providers in aggressive driving programs and community events.
Enforcement/Adjudication
Continue to support aggressive driving mitigation programs.
Continue to conduct aggressive driving enforcement campaigns.
Engineering
Use variable message signs to show anti-aggressive driving messages.
Improve signal coordination to produce efficient and increased traffic flow on roadway corridors.
- Continue addressing bicycle and micromobility user needs on transportation facilities. Increase efforts for bicyclist and motorist education.
Engineering
Use the AASHTO Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities and other adopted guidance documents.
Develop a Bicycle Accommodations in Workzones Standards book.
Improve signage and infrastructure addressing safety for motorists and bicyclists along heavily used bicycle corridors where appropriate.
Determine heavy collision hotspots and implement mitigation measures.
Develop Utah Department of Transportation specific bicycle standards.
Education
Continue Heads Up safety campaigns.
Develop safety messaging for micromobility users.
Increase the promotion of bicycle helmet use, with a special focus among school age children.
Continue partnership for educational programs targeting adults and children on bicycle safety.
Develop educational programs that teach drivers the importance of sharing the road, including the three-foot law.
Legislative/Policy/Programmatic
Research creating a Safety Garden in Utah.
Enforcement/Adjudication
Better inform law enforcement of traffic laws as they pertain to both motorists and bicyclists and encourage enforcement of the laws.
Meet twice a year with local law enforcement on bicycle concerns.
Continue to promote bike rodeos in local communities.
Incident Management/EMS
Encourage involvement of local emergency medical service providers in the implementation of educational programs.
- Sustain efforts to reduce commercial vehicle serious injuries and fatal crashes. The Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration, UDOT's Motor Carrier Division and the Utah Highway Patrol oversee all safety issues in Utah.
Engineering
Continue efforts to mitigate high crash corridors for commercial vehicles.
Continue efforts to utilize Weigh-in-Motion and Mainline Bypass Technologies to effectively facilitate commerce and minimize CMV back up on Utah's main interstates.
Education
Promote Truck Smart Campaign activities, which teach drivers of passenger vehicles to drive safely around commercial motor vehicles and commercial drivers to slow down, buckle up, and stay alert.
Encourage commercial vehicle drivers to slow down, buckle up and stay alert.
Partner with the Board of Education and private driving schools to educate young drivers about the nuances of driving safely around commercial motor vehicles.
Enforcement/Adjudication
Continue the safety compliance reviews of high-risk carriers and educate new entrants into the commercial motor vehicle businesses.
Continue to partner with law enforcement agencies to identify and cite safety violators.
- Connected and autonomous vehicle technologies have the potential to significantly change surface transportation as we know it today. Externalities associated with driving including crashes, traffic congestion, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumptions may significantly diminish as connected and autonomous vehicle technologies are introduced. The adoption of these technologies will help us reach our goal of Zero Fatalities.
Engineering
Develop a working understanding of the technology.
Learn how to accommodate and process increasing amounts of data in order to leverage information and make decisions.
Understand near-term versus long-term implications (i.e. standards, mixed traffic, investment strategies, etc.)
Education
Initiate a Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Technologies Campaign to highlight the technology and various implications.
Incident Management/EMS
Understand FHWA's Response, Emergency Staging, Communications, Uniform Management, and Evacuation (R.E.S.C.U.M.E.) Concept of Operations.
- Reduce the number of serious injury and fatal crashes related to driver distraction.
Education
Educate roadway users on all distracted driving laws, including that it is illegal to manipulate a handheld wireless device while operating a moving motor vehicle.
Develop educational campaigns focusing on the dangers of distracted driving through various media platforms, including social media, broadcast media, press events, new partnerships, and print media.
Zero Fatalities continue educational efforts with novice drivers and driver's ed, focusing on distracted driving.
Enforcement/Adjudication
Work with law enforcement agencies to promote enforcement of Utah's texting law and other distracted driving laws.
Partner with various agencies to work toward a hands free distracted driving law in Utah.
- Maintain efforts to reduce drowsy driving-related serious injury and fatal crashes.
Engineering
Install drowsy driving warning signs in high crash locations. Install rumble strips at high crash locations where possible.
Education
Continue partnership with UDOT, UDPS, and Med One Capital as part of the “Sleep Smart. Drive Smart.” campaign. Support educational activities and media campaigns.
Enforcement/Adjudication
Improve drowsy driving crash reporting with law enforcement.
Incident Management/EMS
Increase involvement of emergency medical service providers in drowsy driving programs and community events.
- Sustain commitment to, and cooperation with, the Incident Management System. Strengthen partnerships that assist law enforcement and emergency medical services efforts. Coordinate prevention efforts with existing emergency medical services programs.
Engineering
Improve communication infrastructure for emergency response and dispatch.
Education
Increase education and involvement of EMS in transportation safety. Develop and support integrated EMS and transportation safety programs.
Continue to provide pediatric trauma education enforcement.
Communications
Enhance communication interoperability in an effort to decrease incident response time.
Incident Management/EMS
Continue requirement for ambulance drivers to receive emergency vehicle operators training.
Promote EMS provider safety and emotional well-being through operational guidelines and peer support groups.
Maintain efforts to facilitate rapid response, treatment and transport of vehicular crash victims.
Maintain efforts to ensure ambulances are appropriately staffed and equipped.
Utilize patient care data to make improvements in patient care.
Legislative/Policy/Programmatic
Continue efforts to implement a statewide trauma system.
- Continue efforts to reduce crashes at highway railroad crossings through education, engineering, and enforcement.
Engineering
Support and encourage continued engineering research and innovation that improves railroad crossing safety.
Enhance railroad crossing inspection, evaluation and engineering upgrade.
Implement pedestrian and preemption standards.
Education
Educate new drivers, school bus drivers, professional truck drivers and the public about railroad crossing safety.
Continue to support railroad crossing safety and educational programs.
Enforcement/Adjudication
Support enforcement of traffic laws at railroad crossings.
Provide law enforcement with opportunities to participate in Utah Rail Safety Week, organized by Utah Operation Lifesaver.
- Continue to reduce alcohol and drug-related serious injury and fatal crashes.
Education
Support program to reduce DUIs in the 21 — 39 age group.
Support for impaired prevention programs at colleges and universities.
Provide DUI awareness materials.
Enhance DUI court participation with training and resources.
Continue support of the 24/7 Sobriety Pilot Program in Weber County.
Increase education and outreach for the growing segments of the population.
Enforcement/Adjudication
Conduct high visibility multi-agency enforcement in conjunction with media campaigns.
Encourage BAC testing on all vehicle operators in fatal crashes.
Support partnership with Toxicology lab to help improve efficiency of DUI tox results.
Support data driven enforcement efforts including: saturation patrols, checkpoints, etc.
Legislative/Policy/Programmatic
Continue support for DUI legislation.
Increase the number of agencies involved in the Eliminating Alcohol Sales to Youth program.
- Efforts must be made to reduce the frequency and/or severity of crashes within intersections.
Engineering
Improve visibility and signing, sight distance, signal timing and enhance intersection lighting.
Evaluate the effectiveness and safety of traffic signal systems as well as intersection types.
Collaborate with EMS to identify locations for signal preemption.
Education
Develop education programs about using innovative intersection types and features.
Promote education campaigns that reduce red-light running.
Increase involvement of emergency medical services providers in educational programs and community events.
Enforcement/Adjudication
Improve the ability to enforce violations at high-crash intersections.
Incident Management/EMS
Engage local emergency medical service providers in the implementation of education programs.
- Promote a more active role from judicial partners. Increase the awareness of traffic safety issues, making stronger efforts to ensure a violator is correctly charged in cases of second or subsequent offenses. Investigate real-time access to traffic violation history for court purposes. Furthermore, continue enforcement of approved programs to educate traffic violators on the dangers of aggressive, impaired and distracted driving while discontinuing the practice of dismissing lesser traffic charges. Also continue to pursue mechanisms to reduce recidivism in traffic offenses.
Enforcement/Adjudication
Execute laws through the court system.
Continue with the 24/7 Pilot Project in Weber County, hoping to move this project statewide.
Streamline DUI-related driver license suspension/revocation hearings.
Promote DUI-related procedural rule changes that increase effectiveness and avoid redundancies.
Enhance efficiency of reporting DUI convictions.
Education
Utilize traffic safety programs to educate traffic violators on safe behavior.
Utilize judicial programs, such as 24/7 in Weber County, to educate DUI offenders on the importance of safe behaviors in order to reduce recidivism in impaired driving.
Promote a standard curriculum for plea-and-abeyance defensive driving courses.
Encourage drivers aged 18-25 attend the 'Alive at 25' safe driving course.
Coordinate with Utah's Driver License Division to assess traffic violation history and apply appropriate penalties.
- Efforts must be made to reduce motorcycle serious injury and fatal crashes.
Education
Increase public awareness of motorcyclist concerns through promotion of the “Heads Up” and “Ride to Live” campaigns.
Incentives and promotions for increased motorcycle training courses.
Promote wearing proper protective gear for motorcyclists.
Utilize social media to expand messaging and information available to the public.
Increase rider awareness of the necessity to obtain and continue BRC2 returning rider classes.
Focus efforts on lane filtering law education to motorcyclists and drivers.
Educating the public on watching for motorcyclists.
Incident Management/EMS
Engage local emergency medical service providers in the implementation of educational programs.
- Efforts must be made to prevent pedestrian related crashes by changing Utah's culture to provide safer pedestrian travel. Efforts must also be made to educate children and their parents about safety around cars and to reduce the possibility and/or severity of crashes involving children.
Engineering
Evaluate top 10 locations having significant crash trends involving pedestrians.
Develop and implement improvement projects including signage, lighting, crosswalk and roadway design features.
Identify locations having significant crash trends involving school zones.
Improving infrastructure for safe routes to school.
Continue to support the Safe Sidewalk Program.
Education
Continue to support and implement the Heads Up and other education programs aimed at all age groups.
Shifting culture toward moving people, not cars, through community engagement across Utah.
Encourage walking to school and using the Safe Routes Utah tools and resources.
Legislative/Policy/Programmatic
Proactively planning to elevate pedestrian safety compared to capacity.
Research creating a Safety Garden in Utah.
Enforcement/Adjudication
Meet twice a year with local law enforcement on pedestrian concerns and more pedestrian enforcement.
Broaden reach of pedestrian enforcement funded shifts or blitzes.
Promote crosswalk and school zone enforcement/public information campaigns when funding is available.
Incident Management/EMS
Encourage participation of local emergency medical service providers to participate in local education programs.
Increase involvement of EMS for Children Coordinators in the implementation of educational programs.
Data
Increase data for active transportation and implement active transportation crash review meetings.
- Work should continue to keep vehicles on the roadway and in their proper lanes. When vehicles do leave the roadway, efforts should be made to reduce the possibility and/or severity of crashes.
Engineering
Continue installation of rumble strips where necessary. Enhance roadway delineation and warning signs. Continue installing barrier treatments along high crash corridors.
Education
Continue to include roadway departure in education efforts.
Educating the public on the deadly driving behaviors and the impact they have on roadway departures, and fatalities.
Enforcement/Adjudication
Continue to support enforcement activities that reduce roadway departures.
Encourage seat belt enforcement and enforcement of distracted and impaired driving.
- Special consideration must be given to improving the rural roadway system. Special consideration should also be given to improving the emergency service provider resources and capabilities to provide appropriate patient care. The federal High Risk Rural Roads special rule places additional emphasis on rural road safety. In Utah, a High Risk Rural Road is identified as a rural major or minor collector or a rural local road that exhibits significant safety risk based on: (1) A concentration of crashes at a spot location or on a corridor that can be mitigated by proven safety countermeasures; (2) Roadway attributes (as identified in a road safety audit, engineering study, field review, or similar) that present a risk to drivers, pedestrians, or bicyclists that can be mitigated by proven safety countermeasures; and/or (3) A quantitative safety model, such as usRAP/ViDA.
Engineering
Continue Road Safety Audits. Continue installing systemic safety measures to reduce single vehicle roadway departure crashes.
Incident Management/EMS
Train emergency medical service providers to appropriately triage, treat, transport and transfer injured patients.
Provide pediatric trauma treatment education to rural pre-hospital care providers.
Enforcement/Adjudication
Increase enforcement of The Primary Seat Belt Law and other traffic laws in rural areas.
Legislative/Policy/Programmatic
Implement a statewide trauma system.
- Providing drivers and their families with tools and resources necessary for maintaining independence for their lifetime.
Engineering
Continue to consider older roadway users when designing highway infrastructures.
Implement FHWA guide on older driver mobility.
Incident Management/EMS
Increase involvement of local emergency medical service providers in the implementation of educational programs and community events.
Education
Increase awareness of CarFit events in Utah and encouraging older drivers to attend.
Increase awareness of driving courses at AARP and Utah Safety Council.
Increase awareness of education and transportation resources for each community around the state.
- Efforts must be focused on reducing speeding on the roads and the associated elements of reckless and careless attitudes that often accompany such driver behavior.
Enforcement/Adjudication
Continue to participate in speed management efforts.
Continue funding for special speed enforcement campaigns.
Education
Promote public awareness and voluntary compliance with motorists obeying posted speed limits.
Continue public information and educational outreach activities.
Engineering
Continue the use of driver feedback signs to inform drivers of travel speeds.
Continue the use of traffic calming and road diet devices.
Use variable message signs to show anti-speeding driving messages.
- Focus collaborative efforts utilizing innovative methods to decrease teen fatalities on Utah roads by empowering parents, improving teen driver capabilities, and preparing pre-drivers.
Education
Support overall teen driver education.
Support continued innovation in driver education methods.
Explore partnering with private driver education or involve teens and parents in local Parent Nights.
Reach the goal of 100% of public High Schools receiving Parent Night presentation.
Provide peer leader training, education and outreach to high schools.
Educating parents and teen drivers on the enforcing of Utah's Graduated Driver License laws.
Educate teens on how to drive safely around big trucks through the Truck Smart program.
Promote the “Alive at 25” program.
Educate on Utah's “Not a Drop” law, which prohibits anyone under the age of 21 from drinking alcohol.
Begin efforts for a Teen Education Safety Summit.
Enforcement/Adjudication
Support and enforce the Graduated Driver License laws.
Encourage enforcement of distracted teen driver laws.
Incident Management/EMS
Engage local emergency medical service providers and Hospitals in local educational programs.
- Through the Utah Traffic Records Advisory Committee (UTRAC), we can maximize the overall quality of safety data and analysis based on State traffic records across all six core systems: crash, vehicle, driver, roadway, citation & adjudication and injury. Working together helps to effectively utilize existing data resources while identifying data collection and analysis opportunities.
Engineering
Identify and implement advanced technologies to collect, manage, analyze and distribute crash data in a timely, accurate, complete and uniform manner to authorized users for analytical purposes.
Enhance the ability to combine crash data with traffic volume and roadway features to perform network screening on all public roads.
Enforcement/Adjudication
Develop multi-agency data quality control and quality assurance standards.
Promote the use of an electronic submittal protocol from roadside investigators.
Educate statewide law enforcement agencies on the importance and uses of complete, accurate and uniform crash data.
Promote accountability in statewide law enforcement agencies for the timeliness and accuracy of crash reports and edited or amended reports.
Data
Continue collection of vehicular crash victim treatment and transportation data.
Provide access to pre-hospital injury data for prevention data collection.
Utilize patient care records to assess care provided at crashes and other highway safety related incidences.
- Commit to Traffic Incident Management (TIM) throughout Utah, and improve quick clearance and queue protection efforts. Coordinate with all first responders to ensure that quick clearance and queue protection are primary concerns.
Engineering
Identify strategies for clearing highway incidents.
Create a Traffic Incident Management plan for Utah.
Build and maintain performance measures for Incident Management and Secondary Crashes.
Incident Management/EMS
Participate in Traffic Incident Management Coalitions within major geographic areas of Utah that include all responders, such as: Law Enforcement, Fire, Emergency Medical, Towing, Public Works, and UDOT.
Education
Train responders in Traffic Incident Management using the FHWA or similar training materials.
- Special consideration must be given to improving the safety of the transit system including rail and bus travel.
Engineering
Enhance rail crossing inspection, evaluation and upgrades.
Install pedestrian safety treatments.
Expand transit vehicle signal prioritization projects.
Encourage in-lane bus stops such as curb or sidewalk extensions and bulb-outs.
Education
Support of rail safety education programs.
Educate drivers and pedestrians about safety at rail crossings and rail/bus stations including around the new Bus Rapid Transit Systems.
Incident Management/EMS
Encourage development of written contingency plans for response to large scale transportation related emergencies.
Participate in periodic emergency exercises.
Legislative/Policy/Programmatic
Support transit crossing safety programs.
- On May 12, 2015 the primary seat belt law went into effect. UDOT, the Utah Department of Public Safety and their partners have been dedicated to increasing education and enforcement to help save lives. Partnerships must continue to be built between key stakeholders to promote seat belt safety. Continue to educate children and their parents about safety in cars and to reduce the possibility and/or severity of crashes involving children.
Education
Continue to work with Safe Kids Utah, State and local health departments, hospitals, and the state board of education to provide child passenger safety training.
Support outreach efforts to high-risk motorists, such as: educational campaigns, health provider education, and school-based programs.
Promote laws and policies that increase seat belt use. Educate lawmakers on the importance of an increased fine.
Support Child Safety Seat Inspection Stations and events.
Promote proper booster seat use.
Support state agencies in their efforts to provide service to the under-served and at risk populations.
Legislative/Policy/Programmatic
Continue to implement a program that reaches the hard core non-user and part-time user of safety belts.
Implement programs to address the transportation needs of children with special health care needs.
Continue programs that increase safety belt use among motorists in rural communities.
Enforcement/Adjudication
Enforce the primary safety belt law for all ages.
Continue multi-agency statewide law enforcement/ public information campaigns.
Participate in the national “Click It or Ticket” campaign and border to border seat belt enforcement effort.
Promote increased enforcement of child safety laws including booster seat use and the primary seat belt law.
- Efforts must be made to reduce the possibility and/or severity of crashes. Practices in traffic control or work zone management that lead to reduced work zone safety must be identified and limited.
Engineering
Identify types of work zones having significant crash trends.
Identify characteristics of projects where work zone crashes have occurred. Increase the number of work zone reviews and assessments.
Develop traffic control standards for pedestrians and bicyclists within a work zone.
Enforcement/Adjudication
Continue the use of law enforcement within work zones.
Education
Continue to emphasize work zone safety training.
Educate children and teens about the dangers of playing around work zones.
Educate the public about the importance of driving safely through work zones.