SPTTAP hosts third annual tribal safety champions workshop

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

From left to right: Franklin Brown, Muscogee Creek Nation; John Hobbs, Choctaw Nation, Chris McCray, Pawnee Nation; Bonita Paddyaker, Comanche Nation; Joe Williams, Oklahoma Highway Patrol; Angie Gilliam, Rick Miller, and Sarah Hayes, Chickasaw Nation, and Derek Anderson, Choctaw Nation. Not pictured: Art Muller, Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and Patrick Keahbone, BIA Law Enforcement, Anadarko Agency.

The Southern Plains Tribal Technical Assistance Program (SPTTAP) at Oklahoma State University and the Southern Plains Transportation Center hosted the Third Annual Tribal Safety Champions Workshop on Wednesday, November 16, 2016 at Aloft in Oklahoma City for 88 participants. The goal of the workshop was to prevent crashes and reduce the number of transportation related injuries and fatalities, while highlighting the work of area safety champions who are striving toward those efforts every day. The event also took a focused approach on innovative safety strategies and technologies.

Topics included Traffic Incident Management (TIM), the new Statewide Impaired Driving Database, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Road to Zero Coalition, Oklahoma DOT’s Safety Priorities and Partnerships, Tribal Transit Updates, Center Line Rumble Strips, Highlighting a New Safety Partnership Between the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office, An Overview of FHWA’s Every Day Counts (EDC) 4 Initiatives, Tribal Peer Presentations, and Charting the Progression of a Fatality through the State’s Crash Database.

The lunch presentation included a focus on this year’s SPTTAP Safety Champion Awardees. Winners included:

Bonita Paddyaker, Comanche Nation, Tribal Child Passenger Safety Technician of the Year
Sarah Hayes, The Chickasaw Nation, Tribal Child Passenger Safety Instructor of the Year
The Choctaw Nation Police Department, Tribal Law Enforcement Officers of the Year
Patrick Keahbone, Anadarko Agency, BIA Law Enforcement Officer of the Year
Joe Williams, Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Local Law Enforcement Officer of the Year
Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Tribal Infrastructure Project of the Year
The Chickasaw Nation Tribal Transit, Tribal Transit Program of the Year
Franklin Brown, Muscogee Creek Nation, Tribal Transit Driver of the Year
Chris McCray, Pawnee Nation, Tribal Safety Champion of the Year
Choctaw Nation Injury Prevention Program, Tribal Safety Champions of the Year

Also featured in the one-day event were six 5-minute poster presentations provided by engineering students from Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma University, and the University of Tulsa. Of the presentations, four featured FHWA EDC innovations including GRS IBS bridges, Pavement Preservation, Data Driven Safety Analysis, and Road Weather Management. Workshop participants had an opportunity to interact with the students, and ultimately voted for their favorite poster. The winner in the poster competition was Sonya Wolff, OU, with her poster on Police Automated Records Information Systems (PARIS).

Of the 85 attendees this year, 11 different tribes were represented among the 45 tribal employees registered. Other participants included two tribal law enforcement Officers, two BIA law enforcement officers, two members of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, six university students, two university professors, three FHWA employees, five consultants, one LTAP employee, four Oklahoma DOT employees, three BIA employees, seven employees from state agencies, one National Highway Traffic Safety Administration employee, and two from a university transportation center.

The Southern Plains TTAP Center is located in the Center for Local Government Technology and is part of the College of Engineering, Architecture, and Technology at Oklahoma State University.

Photos available here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/karlajs/albums/72157672877504544

For more information, contact Karla Sisco, Program Manager, Southern Plains TTAP Center: karla.sisco@okstate.edu.