DuPage County adopts safety action plan, seeks federal grants and sets 2% annual reduction goal for fatal and serious crashes

DuPage County officials on Tuesday adopted a countywide Safety Action Plan intended to guide local agencies on engineering, enforcement and education measures and to help communities apply for federal safety grants.

The plan, presented by a DuPage County transportation staff member, identifies a countywide “high injury network,” documents trends in fatal and serious-injury crashes and recommends a pragmatic 2% annual reduction in fatal and injury-A crashes. “We’re recommending a pragmatic 2% annual reduction in K and A, that’s fatal in injury A,” the transportation staff member said during the presentation.

The plan matters because it makes municipalities, townships and other transportation agencies in the county eligible to use the document as the basis for applications to federal programs such as the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) and other U.S. Department of Transportation funding opportunities. The presenter told the board that local agencies can use the plan for grant applications and for HSIP or Surface Transportation Program (STP)…