Governor Perdue Announces Highway Safety Grants

Georgia Receives More Than $3.9 Million to Fight DUI and Motorcycle Crash Deaths

 ATLANTA- Governor Sonny Perdue announced today that the U.S. Department of Transportation has approved almost $4 million in federal funds to help save lives on Georgia highways.  The funding comes in the form of three significant grants from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), each one taking aim at a different deadly aspect of Georgia’s traffic safety issues.

“These new grants are clear evidence that the best of Georgia’s law enforcement professionals and highway safety advocates are constantly raising the bar and setting new standards for best practices for Georgia’s life-saving traffic safety efforts, making Georgia a safer place for everyone to live and drive, ”said Governor Sonny Perdue.

The largest of the three NHTSA grants designates $3,065,461 for Alcohol Impaired Driving Countermeasure Programs to underwrite Georgia DUI enforcement like “Operation Zero Tolerance”, “The 100 Days of Summer H.E.A.T.”, “Over The Limit, Under Arrest” and other important alcohol awareness initiatives in our communities.          

A second NHTSA grant awards $737,530 for Georgia’s State Traffic Safety Information System Improvement Program.  NHTSA recognizes Georgia's traffic safety agencies and partners for demonstrating “measurable progress” in the strategic plans for a state highway safety data and traffic records system.

 The NHTSA funding supports Georgia's efforts to develop and implement a fully electronic, integrated system for crash records.  When complete, this system will create a safer Georgia by providing timely, accurate crash data that can be used to study, predict and prevent crashes, as well as maximizing the effectiveness of law enforcement resources.

A final NHTSA grant supports Georgia’s rider education efforts for motorcycling. When motorcycle crash deaths began to dramatically increase here and across the country, Georgia law enforcement took the lead as the first state in the nation to include high visibility motorcycle enforcement in the GOHS “100 Days of Summer H.E.A.T.” campaign.

The NHTSA Section 2010 “Motorcyclist Safety Grant” provides $140,234 for Georgia’s groundbreaking new program to reduce the number of crashes and promote motorcycle safety awareness through innovative enforcement, education and evaluation.