Traffic safety goal met, coalition says

The Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety announced they met a monumental goal on Jan. 11 -- reducing traffic fatalities to fewer than 1,000. Fatalities from traffic crashes are down dramatically from 1,257 in 2005, to 1,096 in 2006, and finally 970 for 2007. This is a 24 percent reduction in two years. The last time traffic fatalities were this low was 1993 with 949.

"We are proud and humbled to play a part in this lifesaving endeavor," said Becky Baltz, Missouri Department of Transportation Southwest District Engineer. "The Coalition set a lofty goal in 2004 and to have it met a year early is inspiring." Over the last two years, Interstate 44 cable installation reduced cross-median fatalities from 25 to one. Statewide, these fatalities were reduced by nearly half. Missouri currently has nearly 500 miles of median guard cable installed. MoDOT is studying the state's entire four-lane divided highway system to determine additional locations where guard cable would be effective in reducing fatalities.

The Missouri Coalition of Roadway Safety is a large group of safety advocates who banded together in 2004 to create Missouri's Blueprint for Safer Roadways to attack the problem of traffic crashes and deaths. Within the Blueprint, Missouri's fatality reduction goal was set at "1,000 or fewer fatalities by 2008."