Virginia awarded nearly $2 million in federal funds for road safety projects and initiatives

Last week, U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced nearly $2 million in federal funding to promote increased safety for Virginia drivers.

The funding, according to a press release, will focus on commercial motor vehicles, which were involved in nearly 5,000 accidents in Virginia in 2021.

“Last year, we saw nearly 5,000 crashes and 100 fatalities involving commercial motor vehicles on Virginia’s roads,” the Senators said in a joint press release. “We are pleased to know that these federal dollars will go towards promoting greater safety on roadways and helping prevent future tragedies.”

Awarded through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s High Priority Grant program, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) will receive $1,040,334 to enhance crash data analysis by improving and increasing the reporting of data, according to the press release. The data will help evaluate program effectiveness, identify problems and trends, help target spending, and ultimately reduce the number of CMV crashes currently occurring on Virginia roadways.

Chesterfield County will receive $105,807 to help reduce the number of overall commercial motor vehicle (CMV)-related crashes by funding overtime enforcement in high-crash corridors throughout the county. Chesterfield will receive another $180,328 to increase understanding of the factors that contribute to CMV crashes and support traffic enforcement decisions to reduce CMV crashes. As part of this project, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) will conduct a CMV crash corridor and crash causation analysis. Following this analysis, VTTI will conduct a pilot test of traffic enforcement to try to reduce the contributing factors in one of the identified CMV crash corridors.

Virginia Tech will receive $614,871 to increase knowledge of safe driving practices among drivers, including newly licensed teens and older adults. This funding will allow in-class demonstrations in 80 high school driver education programs between the fall of 2022 and the spring of 2024.