Call for organizations to help save lives on Virginia’s roads

If your organization’s passion is making a difference in your community and you want to save lives, consider applying for a highway safety grant from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Grants allow law enforcement agencies, nonprofit organizations, state and local government agencies, and colleges and universities, to implement innovative programs and campaigns aimed at preventing and reducing traffic fatalities, injuries, and crashes in Virginia.

Interested applicants may apply from February 1 through February 28, 2022, and are required to complete a grant application training course. Workshops begin in January 2022. For information about the course, guidelines for grant applications, and access to the application, contact the DMV program manager assigned to the area of Virginia where the applicant is located. Visit https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/safety/#resources/safety_contacts.asp for a list of program managers by area.

Grant-funded programs strive to increase seat belt use or decrease speeding; prevent drunk, drugged, drowsy, or distracted driving; or promote motorcyclist, pedestrian, bicyclist, teen, or senior driver safety. Additionally, objectives to measure the initiative’s effectiveness are required, and funding is determined by the potential impact on these established performance objectives. Applications for programs that include Virginians of various cultures and ethnicities are encouraged. For more information, visit https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/safety/#grants/index.asp.

The funding period for approved applications is October 1, 2022, through September 30, 2023. Applicants participate on a cost-reimbursement basis.

Here are three examples of grant-funded projects:

· A local law enforcement agency provides high-visibility enforcement (HVE) of alcohol-related traffic laws, including checkpoints and saturation patrols, to combat drunk driving crashes, injuries and fatalities. The agency evaluates the crash data in its locality, including where and at what times of day the most incidents occur, and forms an HVE plan based on the data.

· Virginia GrandDriver provides safe driving resources and services to mature drivers, their caregivers, and the medical, law enforcement, and legal communities. GrandDriver holds CarFit events across Virginia, a 12-point assessment that addresses issues such as foot positioning and mirror placement. Professionals conduct approximately 200 assessments annually that evaluate an older person’s driving ability at Comprehensive Driver Assessment locations.

· Street Smart is a pedestrian and bicycle safety public awareness campaign in northern Virginia. Paid advertising displays on buses, at bus stops and bus shelters, on gas pump toppers, and through social media, while law enforcement agencies spend overtime hours enforcing pedestrian and bicycle traffic laws, all during Daylight Saving Time.

For more highway safety information, visit https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/safety/. To learn more about Virginia’s goal to achieve zero traffic deaths, visit tzdva.org.