ATSSA’s Annual Report for 2021 is now available. This year’s theme is “Resilience & Records” and lays out the many achievements that took place across the Association in a year that posed significant challenges for our members such as supply chain disruptions and a nationwide worker shortage.

The report opens with a letter from President & CEO Stacy Tetschner who touches on issues from passage of the bipartisan infrastructure package to the creation of a Roadway Worker Protection Council, which emerged from the 2021 Convention & Traffic Expo.

The report also includes a list of company members that joined ATSSA in the last year, a review of updates to ATSSA’s training options and insights gained from a member survey commissioned in 2021 as well as other highlights from the past year.

Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) released guidelines for the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) under the new Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

The guidance outlines eligibilities under the HSIP, along with defining guidance for new special rules that  fall under the HSIP.

While the majority of the HSIP guidance remains intact from the previous highway authorization, ATSSA’s Government Relations team highlighted a few changes to the guidance under the IIJA.

Traffic fatalities increased 12% for the first nine months of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, marking the biggest percentage increase in the history of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) fatality reporting process, which projects fatality data.

The Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) provides statistical projections for traffic fatalities nationwide, looking at the first nine months of the year in this report that provides an early estimate of motor vehicle traffic fatalities.

The 12% increase is based on an estimated 31,720 people killed in motor vehicle crashes nationwide in the first nine months of 2021 compared to 28,325 killed in the first nine months of 2020. That is the highest number of fatalities for nine months since 2006.

The National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS) unveiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) on Thursday focuses on moving the U.S. towards zero roadway deaths by taking a safe systems approach that includes six central themes.

The themes laid out are that: deaths and serious injuries are unacceptable; human mistakes are inevitable; humans are vulnerable to injury and death; there is a shared responsibility for these incidents; safety can be and should be proactive; and redundancy is critical. The strategy introduced by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also focuses on five safety issues.

“ATSSA applauds Secretary Buttigieg on the release of the first National Roadway Safety Strategy, especially with its call for the enhanced protection of roadway construction workers," ATSSA President & CEO Stacy Tetschner said. "Shining a brighter spotlight on the need to dramatically reduce roadway fatalities is critically necessary.”

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is withdrawing its vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard, effective Wednesday.

The move follows a Jan. 13 ruling by the Supreme Court blocking a Biden administration effort to require employees of large employers to get a COVID-19 vaccine or undergo weekly testing and wear a mask.

The court ruled 6-3 in the employer case with the court’s conservative majority concluding the administration overstepped its authority by seeking to impose the OSHA vaccine-or-test rule on U.S. businesses with at least 100 employees. More than 80 million people would have been affected.