The Road to Zero Coalition, managed by the National Safety Council (NSC), is pleased to announce the recipients of the second annual Safe System Innovation Grants through the Road to Zero initiative. The grants are awarded to organizations with innovative approaches to make roadways safer and eliminate preventable roadway deaths—the mission of the Road to Zero initiative.
“Preliminary estimates indicate that as many as 40,000 people were killed last year in motor vehicle crashes, underscoring the need to act urgently,” said Deborah A.P. Hersman, president and CEO of the NSC. “We had an impressive pool of applicants, but the creativity and carefully considered strategies of the grant recipients set them apart. We look forward to working with them on our shared journey toward zero deaths.”
Grant recipients are:
| Organization Name | Initiative |
| America Walks | Accelerating Adoption of Safer Systems for All Road Users |
| Bicycle Colorado | Bicycle-Friendly Driver and Confident Commuting Program |
| Center for Latino Progress—CPRF | Cooperative Community Crash Reduction, Hartford, Connecticut |
| City of Boson Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics | Boston’s Safest Driver |
| Lorain County Public Health | Lorain Active Transportation Collaborative |
| National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago | Underutilized Strategies in Traffic Safety |
| Texas A&M University Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, in collaboration with Houston Methodist Hospital | A Systems Approach to Reduce Drowsy Driving Among Night-Shift Nurses |
| University of Alabama at Birmingham, in collaboration with Safe Kids Worldwide | Improving Child Restraint Installation in Rural America through Interactive Virtual Presence |
To qualify for a Safe System Innovation Grant, an organization must clearly explain how its program will improve safety on the roadways, set a timeframe for the reduction, outline how the program will be evaluated, and detail how the organization intends to reach its target audience, among other elements.
The Road to Zero initiative was launched in October 2016 as a joint effort between the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and the NSC. The goal is to eliminate roadway deaths by 2050. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at the Department of Transportation committed $3 million—$1 million annually from 2017 to 2019—to fund Safe System Innovation Grants, and the NSC is managing the grant process.
Grant applications were rated by officials at the Department of Transportation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For more information about the Road to Zero, please visit www.nsc.org/roadtozero.
About the National Safety Council
The National Safety Council is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to eliminate preventable deaths at work, in homes and communities, and on the road through leadership, research, education and advocacy. Founded in 1913 and chartered by Congress, NSC advances this mission by partnering with businesses, government agencies, elected officials and the public in areas where we can make the most impact.