January 2022 News & Updates
Photo courtesy of WAMC.org
Greetings!

Hopefully, you had a little downtime at the end of the year and are now gearing up for the coming year's activities. VHSA certainly is! The 4th annual PSA Video Contest has been announced (more on that below). We're moving forward with May's Impaired Driving Summit to take place in-person at the Killington Grand Hotel & Conference Center. We hope we don't have to pivot to a virtual event but will be ready to do so if necessary. Wouldn't it be great to see everyone in person again to share knowledge, stories, and insights with our fellow highway safety experts.

Sue Hoxie, Executive Director
#SafeDrivesSaveLivesVT Video Contest Announced
In conjunction with April’s National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, VHSA announced its fourth annual video public service announcement contest. With a focus on distracted driving, the contest is open to high-school students and designed to encourage young drivers, their friends, and classmates to avoid distracted driving.

This year’s contest expands the scope of distracted driving beyond just texting to include other causes of distraction such as using car features (music, climate, GPS), talking to passengers, eating and drinking, drowsiness, grooming, children and pets, smoking, emotions, daydreaming, and rubbernecking. 

All the details, guidelines, and checklists are available on VHSA's website.

The contest poster can be downloaded here. Please post and distribute this wherever you can--let's surpass 2021's number (49) of entries.

Thanks to our 2022 sponsors: AAA Northern New England, AT&T, Co-operative Insurance, Vermont Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association, Yankee Driving School, and Youth Safety Council of Vermont. 

Additional thanks are owed to the Vermont Agency of Transportation for their support of this event.
Mark Your Calendar!
National Passenger Safety Week
January 23-31, 2022
Work Zone Awareness Week
April 11-15, 2022
NHTSA Awareness Campaigns
NHTSA’s targeted awareness campaigns give the traffic safety community the
chance to emphasize one message in a unified way across the country during a
specific period of time. Each campaign has associated materials that can be
found at TrafficSafetyMarketing.gov or at the specific links below.
Information Sharing: Reports, Studies & Newsletters
Webinar: Improving Safety for Aging Drivers...and We Are All Aging. Wednesday, February 9, 11 am ET. Register here.


Publication: Public Roads Magazine, Winter 2022. A comprehensive document on the Safe Systems Approach.
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