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.

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.”

ATSSA’s 2021 Midyear Meeting kicks off this afternoon in Kansas City, Mo.

More than 300 people have registered for the event that runs through Friday and is being held in hybrid fashion with some attending in person at the Loews Kansas City Hotel and others taking part online.

The week includes the first meeting of the Roadway Worker Protection Council, which takes place Wednesday and evolved from a Roadway Worker Protection Summit held during this year’s Convention and Traffic Expo.

This year’s Midyear Meeting adds a new council focused on roadway worker protection to the lineup.

The addition evolved from the Roadway Worker Protection Summit, which was heavily attended during ATSSA’s 2021 Annual Convention & Traffic Expo held online in February, said ATSSA Vice President of Education and Technical Services Donna Clark.

She said the topic resonates with everyone in the roadway safety industry and, unfortunately, the statistics on injuries and deaths aren’t improving.

The Spring issue of Roadway Safety magazine is now available with a cover story that’s apt as we observe National Work Zone Awareness Week.

We take a look at “smart vests” being developed in Virginia in a collaboration between the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), Audi of America, Qualcomm and American Tower Corp.

The smart vests provide an example of the potential for lifesaving benefits of cellular vehicle-to-everything (CV2X) technology.

Our first “Convention Extra” is also available online now.

ATSSA’s 51^st Annual Convention & Traffic Expo just wrapped up eight days filled with industry information and plentiful opportunities to interact with experts and innovators in the roadway safety industry.

The fully online event drew attendance from every state in the U.S. and Washington, D.C., plus an international contingent representing Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, Spain and the United Kingdom. In addition, department of transportation (DOT) officials taking part represented 43 states, Washington, D.C., Canada and Spain.

People who registered for the event have until April 9 to watch all of the sessions again or see anything they missed. Anyone who was unable to attend over the past two weeks can register now to see all of the sessions, visit exhibits and earn continuing education credits. 

Training and technology were identified as two important areas to address during this morning’s Roadway Worker Protection Summit, the kick-off event of ATSSA’s 51^st Annual Convention & Traffic Expo.

“Training is absolutely critical,” said Kathi Holst, a four-decade member of the industry, an ATSSA board member and president & CEO of RCMS in Naperville, Ill. “If we aren’t providing training … we are negligent.”

Holst was one of four panelists for the Summit, which addressed both prevention of work zone incidents and resources for use if the worst happens and an employee gets killed on the job. ATSSA Vice President of Education & Technical Services Donna Clark and ATSS Foundation Chair Dave Krahulec moderated the discussion, which also included Doug Dolinar, who is president of Guidemark Inc. of Souderton, Pa., and also an ATSSA board member.

Cameron Hutt was six years old when her father was killed in a work zone accident in 2006. Her mother was left on her own to raise Cameron, her younger sister and a third child on the way.

A dozen years later, when Cameron sought to become the first one in her extended family to get a college degree, the dream might have been out of reach if it hadn’t been for the Roadway Worker Memorial Scholarship offered by The American Traffic Safety Services Foundation.

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (April 22, 2020) – The American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA) celebrates “Go Orange Day” today, which is the midpoint of National Work Zone Awareness Week, an event that emphasizes the need for diligence when approaching roadway work zones.

While most people remain at home and off the roads because of COVID-19 precautions, ATSSA members and departments of transportation across the country are busy making roadway repairs and taking other steps to advance roadway safety infrastructure. In some states, road projects are accelerating to take advantage of the light traffic.

As National Work Zone Awareness Week begins, the National Transportation Safety Board announced two safety recommendations have been implemented as a result of prior work zone crashes that caused fatalities.

One involved a tractor-trailer that started a chain-reaction collision on Interstate 95 in New Jersey. The other involved a train that struck a backhoe in Pennsylvania.