Prepare for effective incident response by attending the free March 22 Worker Safety Webinar hosted by the ATSSA Training Department and its Roadway Worker Protection Council.

This is the second in a series of five webinars, all of which are free and focus on learning ways to protect roadway workers.

“The goal of these webinars is to help our members protect their employees and to help prepare them in case a work zone incident occurs,” said ATSSA Vice President of Education and Technical Services Donna Clark. “Obviously, we never want any roadway worker to get injured but we’ve learned it’s better to be prepared and not need the skills than to be unprepared if the worst happens.”

ATSSA kicked off its Worker Safety Webinar Series today with a session by Alex Kelly, founder and CEO of SALT + Company.

Calling her presentation “Road Safety 101,” Kelly discussed big picture issues related to the transportation industry and encouraged company owners to veer outside their lane—though not literally—to explore alternate avenues for partnerships.

Today’s session was the first of five Worker Safety Webinars and sponsored by the ATSSA Training Department and the new Roadway Safety Protection Council. The next four webinars will take place in 2022.

ATSSA members have been hit hard by this year’s labor shortage with one declaring, it’s “killing us.”

Read the Fall 2021 issue of Roadway Safety magazine to learn how your colleagues are coping and how ATSSA responded with a new tool to attract students and recent graduates to the field of roadway safety.

The magazine also includes an emotional piece about three people who became roadway safety advocates as a result of personal loss. You can also get a detailed update on colorized bike lanes at multiple jurisdictions, research results on studies of presence lighting and digital speed signs, and some early information about ATSSA's Annual Convention & Traffic Expo coming up in Febuary. 

Plus, check out our Training Spotlight, which includes a two-page, full-color chart detailing state-by-state requirements. 

ATSSA was among 110 groups today sending a letter to all members of the House of Representatives, encouraging them to vote for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which passed the Senate in bipartisan action.

The IIJA “represents a historic opportunity to provide substantial economic and quality of life enhancements to communities across the country and to build for the future,” the letter states. “The investments made in the package would facilitate long overdue repairs and improvements to our roads, bridges, rail, and public transportation, and other critical infrastructure, such as airports, ports, broadband, energy, and water systems.”

The infrastructure bill includes a 5-year reauthorization of federal highway, public transportation and passenger rail programs, which the groups note would “ensure states and localities have much-needed funding and policy certainty to proceed with planned projects.”

Those projects are currently operating under a funding extension set to expire Sept. 30.

Preliminary estimates for motor vehicle fatalities for the first six months of 2021 are up 16% over the same period in 2020, the National Safety Council (NSC) reported this morning.

The estimate for the first six months of 2021 is also 17% higher than the 2019 figures, according to NSC, which tracks that and other data on injuries.

The group noted that mileage for the first half of 2021 was up 13% over the low point in 2020 due to COVID-19. However, this year’s mileage was still almost 6% below travel mileage in 2019.