Resident urges Volusia County to create public pedestrian-safety data portal

Robert Flaherty of Deltona urged the Volusia County Charter Review Commission to recommend a 2026 ballot amendment that would require the county to maintain a publicly accessible pedestrian-safety data portal independent of law enforcement.

Flaherty told commissioners that pedestrian fatalities in the United States have "surged 48 percent over the past decade," and cited the Governor's Highway Safety Association and Smart Growth America to argue that local crash data should be openly available. "Volusia County shall maintain a publicly accessible pedestrian safety data portal independent of law enforcement," Flaherty said, adding that the portal should be "updated quarterly by a designated data steward who shall have the authority to escalate and correct data errors."

Flaherty highlighted what he called data-integrity concerns in a recent Volusia County case in which a driver's name was misspelled in a crash report and internal documents, asking whether accurate data are being shared with oversight agencies and the public. He framed the proposal as a transparency and safety measure funded by taxpayers, not a law-enforcement resource.

The commission did not debate or vote on the proposal at the listening session; the chair said staff will compile written and spoken comments and commissioners will begin formal discussion at the Oct. 13 meeting. Members of the public who want to submit supporting documents were directed to vccharterreview@volusia.org or to the Charter Review Commission page on the county website.