Legislation enforcement officers reply to a deadly crash at 4100 S. Mountain View Hall in West Valley Metropolis on Dec. 29, 2022. The U.S. Division of Transportation will ship $3.2 million in funds to 6 native and regional governments throughout Utah as part of a brand new program aimed toward decreasing site visitors crashes and deaths. Laura Seitz, Deseret Information
The U.S. Division of Transportation introduced Wednesday that it's going to ship a "historic" $800 million in funds for 510 highway security initiatives throughout the nation, together with six in Utah, because the nation offers with an uptick in traffic-related deaths.
The cash comes from the brand new Protected Streets and Roads for All Grant Program, which was included in an infrastructure legislation President Joe Biden signed in 2021. This system units apart $5 billion for site visitors security initiatives over the subsequent 5 years.
The funds directed to Utah, which whole about $3.2 million, will assist six native and regional governments as they develop new complete security motion plans, in response to the federal division:
- Mountainland Affiliation of Governments: $1 million
- 5 County Affiliation of Governments: $1 million
- Wasatch Entrance Regional Council: $775,200
- Cache Metropolitan Planning Group: $320,000
- Metropolis of Inexperienced River: $79,000
- Cedar Metropolis Company: $52,000
The federal program was established as an estimated 42,915 folks died in site visitors crashes throughout the nation in 2021, a 16-year-high, the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration reported in Could 2022. Federal officers mentioned Wednesday that preliminary knowledge signifies a equally excessive quantity for 2022, particularly in pedestrian and bicycle-related deaths, although these numbers will not be launched till later this yr.
Utah's tendencies have primarily mirrored nationwide tendencies for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, 2021 was the deadliest yr on Utah roads over a 19-year span. The ultimate variety of deaths ended up being 332 folks, in response to an replace final month.
Final yr was practically as lethal, because the Utah Division of Public Security and Utah Division of Transportation reported that 320 folks died on Utah roads. Pedestrian and bicycle-related deaths rose within the state, as did the variety of youngsters killed in crashes.
This yr can be off to a rocky begin. Zero Fatalities, a program operated by the 2 departments, studies that there have already been 20 deaths on Utah roadways this yr, down simply two from the identical level final yr, in response to knowledge accessed Tuesday morning. The full variety of crashes is up 22% from the identical cut-off date final yr.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg mentioned he hopes that this system will start to scale back the variety of site visitors crashes throughout the nation, which he mentioned is not simply taking lives but additionally impacting the economic system. The Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration, for instance, issued a report final month that discovered the U.S.'s 2019 site visitors crashes alone resulted in $340 billion in financial losses.
"Each, yr crashes value tens of hundreds of American lives and a whole bunch of billions of dollars to our economic system; we face a nationwide emergency on our roadways, and it calls for pressing motion," Buttigieg mentioned in an announcement Wednesday. "We're proud that these grants will instantly assist a whole bunch of communities as they put together steps which might be confirmed to make roadways safer and save lives."