The American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA), a trade association dedicated to making America's roadways safer, was awarded a four-year, $11.9 million grant from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on Sept. 15 to provide roadway safety training nationwide for workers and others who make their livelihood on America's roadways. For nearly 30 years, ATSSA has been recognized as the nation's leader in highway safety training.
Initial training efforts will focus on 16 states identified by the FHWA as having opportunities to make significant progress toward national road safety goals.
"America's roads have never been safer," said Federal Highway Administrator J. Richard Capka, "but highway work-zone accidents continue to increase. Safety is our top priority, and safety-training programs like this will do much to protect construction crews in every state."
"The grant will allow quality ATSSA training to reach even farther across the country," said Donna Clark, ATSSA's director of training and products. "More importantly, ATSSA training will now be more available, more affordable and will take place initially in locations where statistics tell us it's needed the most. We look at the next four years as a tremendous opportunity to potentially save thousands of lives."
Under the requirements of the grant, ATSSA will perform tasks in highway work-zone worker safety training, highway work-zone safety guidelines development and highway work-zone safety guidelines training areas. The training component of the grant is comprised of a wide variety of courses that include training for traffic-control technicians, traffic-control supervisors, designers, roadway flaggers, emergency responders (such as police, fire, EMS and towing) and utility workers. Recipients of the training will be state and local public officials, contractors and others.
Numerous partners will work with ATSSA over the next four years to help administer and promote the products and services associated with the grant. Among these partners are Science Applications International Corp., J.M. Morales and Associates, the National Sheriff's Association, consultants Ernie Huckaby and James E. Bryden P.E.
More information related to the grant will be posted on the ATSSA website, ATSSA.com, in mid-October.
