Montpelier, OH – Peg Buda, Coordinator for Williams County Safe Communities announced the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s (ODPS) Ohio Traffic Safety Office (OTSO) awarded $25,000 in federal traffic safety funding to Williams County Combined Health District for federal fiscal year 2022.
The funds are passed through OTSO from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to support the efforts of safety partners statewide and focus on traffic safety priority areas such as restraint use, impaired driving, motorcycle safety and mature and youthful drivers.
Competitive grant proposals are accepted and reviewed by OTSO. The FFY2022 competitive grant process solicited grant proposals from state agencies, non-profit organizations, colleges, universities, hospitals, political subdivisions and other interested groups within selected Ohio counties and jurisdictions (based upon the number of fatal crashes). Williams County has averaged 4.67 fatal crashes annually over the last three years.
Ohio’s Safe Communities network uses local coalitions to deliver traffic safety messages and programs throughout the year at the county level.
“Partnerships are critical to the success of any safety effort and we are committed to working with our safety partners to address traffic safety concerns in Williams County. “said Peg Buda.
Williams County Safe Communities has identified that mature and teen driver related traffic crashes are a priority area to target for traffic safety awareness education along with impaired driving and distracted driving safety awareness.
To save lives and improve the quality of life for our citizens, Williams County Combined Health District will use the grant funds through Williams County Safe Communities for traffic safety awareness education for seat belt usage and distracted driving in our local schools and community.
Impaired driving awareness, motorcycle safety awareness, commercial driving safety awareness, coalition building and fatal data review will also be addressed.
For more information about OTSO and statewide efforts to improve safety on Ohio’s roadways, visit http://ohiohighwaysafetyoffice.ohio.gov/index.stm