Southern Plains TTAP Center completes first year of tribal traffic safety pilot program
Monday, March 14, 2016
PRESS RELEASE – Atlanta, GA – Feb. 24, 2016
From: Southern Plains TTAP Center, CLGT, CEAT, OSU
The Southern Plains TTAP (SPTTAP) Center, located in the Center for Local Government Technology (CLGT) at Oklahoma State University recently completed the first year of a tribal traffic safety pilot program through a groundbreaking collaboration effort between the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The organizations had a chance to assess the progress of the program’s first year at a meeting held at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, GA on February 23-24.
“This has been a unique partnership between FHWA and CDC,” said Karla Sisco, SPTTAP program manager, “and we feel extremely fortunate that our center is a recipient of funding to support the Tribal Safety Circuit Rider (SCR) Program. The benefits to our tribal members in this four-state region of Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska, have been significant.”
Tabatha Harris, an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation and an Oklahoma State University graduate, filled the SCR position for SPTTAP in December 2014. Harris came to the TTAP from the Indian Health Service’s (IHS) Tribal Injury Prevention Cooperative Agreement Program (TIPCAP), where she served as the injury prevention coordinator for the Kaw Nation. Here, she had the opportunity to work with the tribes in Kay County, Okla., which include the Kaw Nation, the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma and the Tonkawa Tribe of Oklahoma.
During her first year as SCR with SPTTAP, Harris was able to provide training or technical assistance to 14 tribes in the SPTTAP service area. She created partnerships through tribal, state, local and federal agencies in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas by providing information about tribes to various agencies, delivering traffic safety training and workshops throughout the region and connecting tribes to state and federal programs.
In 2013, the CDC National Center for Injury Prevention, along with FHWA Office of Technical Services (OTS) Technology Partnership Programs, identified an opportunity to enhance tribal transportation safety services by funding a safety circuit rider position at Southern Plains TTAP Center. Other centers awarded this program include: Western Tribal Technical Assistance Program (WTTAP) located in Santa Rosa, California, and Northern Plains Tribal Technical Assistance Program (NPTTAP) located in Bismarck, ND.
“Traffic safety in Indian country has been a consistent focus area of the Tribal Technical Assistance Program Centers for the past several years,” noted Sisco, “and with the additional resources this funding has provided, we have been able to greatly enhance our safety outreach.”
Traditionally, SCR programs have focused on the four E’s: engineering, education, emergency response, and enforcement. The Tribal SCR Program expands the role to include behavior modification approaches in traffic safety, to include child passenger safety, seat belt use and impaired driving prevention.
“We know preventing injuries saves money,” said Ann Dellinger, PhD, MPH, branch chief, CDC National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
“Crash injuries have gone down in recent years. There were almost 400,000 fewer emergency room visits and about 5,700 fewer hospitalizations in 2012 compared to 2002,” she continued. “This equals $1.7 billion in avoided medicals costs and $2.3 billion in avoided work lost costs.”
Dellinger went on to say that motor vehicle crashes are a winnable battle.
“We know what works, that is, which countermeasures have potential for significant impact." said Dellinger.
The SPTTAP recently completed a transportation safety plan for the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas (KTTT), with the assistance of Harris. The plan outlined several areas of traffic safety improvements for the tribe, including a detailed behavioral strategy plan.
“I really appreciate the time and effort that the TTAP put forth in coming here to give us the much needed training,” said Steven Garza, KTTT transportation director. “We still lack training in many areas, and we hope they’ll be back soon to continue their good work.”
“Being able to reconnect with injury prevention and safety practitioners is great,” said Harris. “But now as SCR, I have the opportunity to expand to transportation programs. It's been an amazing movement to connect both sides, helping bridge the gaps by creating safety teams. I would like to think that the SCR Program is creating a new equation for safety involving five E’s: enforcement, engineering, education, emergency response, and environment."