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KDOT outlines Drive to 0 strategy after multi‑year drop in fatalities; focus shifts to serious injuries in urban roads
Summary
Kansas Department of Transportation officials told the Committee on Transportation that while preliminary 2024 fatalities were down about 11% from 2023, serious injuries are rising on urban and local roads; KDOT described a 5‑year strategic plan, safety corridor pilots, dashboards and grant activity.
Vanessa Spartan, Chief of Transportation Safety at the Kansas Department of Transportation, briefed the Committee on the Drive to 0 initiative and statewide traffic‑safety trends.
Spartan told the committee that preliminary tracking shows Kansas was down about 11% in 2024 fatalities compared with 2023 and that the 2024 preliminary count of 344 fatalities is the lowest recorded in the state’s archives since 1947, subject to trauma and investigative confirmation. She cautioned that 2025 counts are tracking higher compared with 2024.
“Over the last five years we've lost nearly 2,000 people to crashes on Kansas roads,” Spartan said, noting serious injuries—those that require hospitalization and may be disabling—remain a focus because improved post‑crash care can prevent fatal outcomes.
Spartan highlighted a structural shift: overall crashes and fatalities are down in several categories, but serious‑injury crashes are increasing on local roads, particularly within urban area boundaries. She said that since a 2019 federal redefinition of “serious injury” the state’s serious‑injury counts rose immediately (an estimated 47% increase when adopted), and KDOT now focuses on data‑driven fixes including engineering, enforcement, education and emergency response.
KDOT described a revised strategic plan incorporating 23 candidate strategies narrowed to nine priorities. Those priorities include continuing safety corridor pilots begun in 2023, pursuing countermeasures for excessive speeding, testing a safety camera pilot, improving impaired‑driving testing, expanding connected‑vehicle integration, prioritizing local safety plans and assessing post‑crash care timelines and trauma data linkages.
Spartan highlighted KDOT tools and partnerships: an interactive Drive to 0 crash dashboard launched in 2023, a vulnerable road user assessment for pedestrians and bicyclists, county safety plans now covering 102 of 105 counties, and success in securing Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grants with 49 recipient organizations in Kansas. KDOT is piloting targeted safety corridor interventions that combine enforcement, engineering, education and emergency response; Spartan said early results show reduced severity and lower speeds in year one of the pilot.
She also described local coalition growth—Wichita Area MPO and other regions forming local safety coalitions—and outreach like the SAFE Schools high‑school peer program and a “Fans With a Plan” partnership engaging sports and event venues on impaired‑driving messaging.
KDOT announced two upcoming events: Drive to 0 Day at the Capitol on Feb. 12 (9 a.m.–noon) and its Annual Transportation Safety Conference March 4–5 in Wichita. The committee asked questions about COVID‑era fatality trends and smart‑corridor information systems; Spartan said reductions in congestion during COVID correlated with higher speeds and greater crash severity, and confirmed Kansas operates an ITS/digital message system with ongoing US‑83 corridor enhancements.
No committee action or vote was recorded; the presentation was informational and staff offered to provide follow‑up materials and dashboards to committee members.
