This year, staff members from the DPS Office of Highway Safety (OHS) have been taking part in a series of meetings that program coordinator Fred Scanlan said are “to see what the future of technology holds, as far as solutions to American Samoa’s highway safety behavior issues.”

The first stop was Grand Rapids, Michigan for the Governor’s Highway Safety Association (GHSA) meeting where Scanlan and OHS Program Manager for Speed Countermeasures, Pedestrian Safety, and Police Traffic Safety Programs Emelio Fruean, were joined by Police Commissioner William Haleck, who is the Governor’s Representative for Traffic Safety.

The GHSA, a nonprofit association representing the highway safety offices of US States and territories, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, provides leadership and representation for the states and territories to improve traffic safety, influence national policy, enhance program management, and promote best practices. Its members are appointed by their Governors to administer federal and state highway safety funds, as well as implement state highway safety plans.

On the first day of the meeting, American Samoa presented on several issues, including Core Programs and the change to Federal Register language to make all territories eligible for all NHTSA incentive grants.

“American Samoa is in need of more funding, especially Impaired Driving incentive grants to cover more enforcement overtime, more equipment and training, treatment and rehabilitation of repeat offenders, training for traffic prosecutors, etc… and the list goes on,” said Scanlan. He explained that with our current baseline grant, “We spent an average of $110,000 just for two national campaigns per year and limited the number of officers to about 15 per enforcement.”

Scanlan argued that the incentive will give American Samoa the same level of distribution as the state of Vermont, which is about $2.1 million. “This will open more doors to other agencies and profit organizations to help out with community outreach on Impaired Driving,” which in turn will strongly support the OHS goals of reducing fatality and serious injuries on our roadways.

TRAFFIC RECORDS FORUM

Prior to the GHSA meeting, Scanlan and a local delegation traveled to St. Louis, Missouri to attend the Traffic Records Forum which, according to him, “provided an opportunity for traffic records professionals of all disciplines and in all types of organizations to share their experiences, innovations, studies, technologies, etc. through presentations, sessions and conversations.”

Scanlan told Samoa News yesterday that they were able to “enjoy the benefits of what the forum provided in terms of data, data collection, and data analysis.”

The American Samoa Traffic Record Coordinating Committee (TRCC) was represented at the forum by Vice Chairman Lt. Siaosi Aiono, who also heads the DPS Traffic Division.

The AS-TRCC is comprised of members from the Dept. of Public Works’ Civil Highway Division (highway inventory), the DPS’s Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program and Traffic Division (crashes), the Office of Motor Vehicles (driver and vehicle info), the LBJ-EMS (traffic injuries), Dept. of Health (injury surveillance), Port Administration- police (crashes), Traffic section of the Court (citations), and the traffic prosecution division of the Attorney General’s Office — all of whom work to improve the collection, management, and analysis of traffic safety data at the territorial and federal level.

Scanlan explained that the AS-TRCC’s mission is to maximize the overall quality of safety data and analysis based on the territory’s traffic records data across all six core systems: crash, vehicle, driver, roadway, citation & adjudication, and injury surveillance. The AS-TRCC advances this mission with a dual focus.

“Internally, the AS-TRCC works to ensure that member Operating Administrations provide coordinated, effective, and efficient support for Territory traffic records systems and analysis through their outreach, training, technical assistance, and grant programs,” Scanlan explained.

Externally, he added, the group works “to ensure that member Operating Administrations work together effectively to better serve State Traffic Records professionals and agencies by utilizing existing data resources, identifying data collection and analysis collaborations, and supporting the creation and management of integrated traffic records data and standards.”

Scanlan said a lot has been accomplished by the TRCC in improving its data collection systems. “Our office attended the traffic data discussions to share how American Samoa, as a small jurisdiction, adjusts its development as Congress cuts back on data funding for 2013 to 2015.” Those systems are:

a. Electronic Crash system

b. Roadway Inventory / Maintenance- GIS

c. Electronic Citation (pilot testing)

d. Electronic Injury Reporting System (under development)

e. Electronic Title ad Registration System

f. Digital Driver’s License System

OHS oversees the AS-TRCC and a Traffic Record Executive Committee (TREC) consists of directors for the TRCC who sign for the annual grant application for the TRCC to fund their traffic system.

Scanlan was a former chairman for the 5 Territories Traffic Record Committee beginning in 2008 but has finally surrendered the title for another territory to continue the program. 

Meanwhile, he reports, OHS managers have successfully completed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Program Manager’s Course to effectively run the program in 2014.

Next year, NHTSA will take a different approach in funding its National Priorities, primarily Impaired Driving (both alcohol and drugs), and seat belt compliance.

Funding will be programmed for six campaign projects and a new project which will include OHS conducting surveys in Manu’a for the first time, to determine traffic compliance. “We hope there is data collected in the areas of citation and DUI to justify any future movement on funding enforcements and community activities,” Scanlan concluded.