Last Friday, the Washington Traffic Safety Commission (WTSC) honored 24 traffic safety professionals statewide for their outstanding contributions to traffic safety, including the City of Redmond Transportation Services Division.

For the 24th year, the WTSC recognized outstanding citizens who go beyond their job duties and make necessary contributions, changes, and improvements that affect everyone’s safety on our roads. Of the more than 60 applicants, all were individuals or groups from businesses, non-profit or government organizations.

The nominations were judged by a multi-disciplinary team of traffic safety professionals from the state and national levels, including the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Washington State Patrol (WSP), Traffic Safety Task Force Coordinators, and media professionals.

This year the Traffic Safety Awards Program mirrored Washington’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan: Target Zero, which was approved by Gov. Christine Gregoire in 2007. The award categories match the objectives in Priority One and Priority Two levels of Target Zero — Impaired Driving, Speed-Related Collisions, Occupant Protection, Run-Off-Road Collisions, Intersection Collisions, and Traffic Data Systems.

The City of Redmond’s Transportation Services Division relies on an efficient and accurate collision tracking system to determine transportation system improvement needs.

It monitors traffic locations, types of collisions, and the factors that contribute to the collisions. But getting an accurate up to date picture of collision trends was difficult.

The software was complex and cumbersome, so engineering technicians adapted an entirely new system that provides highly accurate results in a friendly, useable format.

The Crash Reduction Software (CRS) they created allowed identification of high accident locations so improvements could be made to reduce or eliminate collisions.

Further, the department scans collision reports into the database and links them to the GIS database.

As a result, the new system provides highly accurate, current and reliable data, which allows the city to better identify areas with high collision rates and to study and correct possible factors contributing to collisions.

The Redmond Police Department has adopted and uses this program to produce patrolling reports that identify traffic corridors in need of additional enforcement.