ContentsExecutive Summary.....................................................................................................................................3

Maryland SHSP Summit...............................................................................................................................5

Welcome and Introductions....................................................................................................................5

Building a Safety Culture at the County Level..........................................................................................6

National Study Center: Trend Data..........................................................................................................7

Washington College: Risk Analysis of Vehicle and Environmental Networks (RAVEN)............................8

Strategic Highway Safety Panel...............................................................................................................8

Prince George’s County.......................................................................................................................9

National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB)............................................................9

Washington County Sheriff’s Department.........................................................................................10

MDOT Secretary Press Event.....................................................................................................................11

AAA Drugged Driving Symposium..............................................................................................................12

Welcome...............................................................................................................................................12

Latest Drugged Driving Research: A National Perspective.....................................................................12

Understanding Legal Marijuana, LLC.....................................................................................................13

Perspective from the Field.....................................................................................................................14

Challenges with Drugged Driving: Problems and Solutions Panel..........................................................15

Feedback Summary...................................................................................................................................17

2

Executive Summary

Engineering, enforcement, education, and EMS careers, also known as the “4Es”, are dedicated to improving public safety, including the reduction of fatalities and serious injuries on all roadways. In these roles we often strive to create a legacy and leave behind tangible assets, processes, or cultures to perpetuate our career’s work. But more important than the things we build and legacy we leave behind are the actual lives we save during our careers. The Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) provides an approach and strategies to save lives on a daily basis.

The 2017 Maryland SHSP Summit and AAA Drugged Driving Symposium, held on April 26th in Linthicum Heights, Maryland, focused on County-level Strategic Highway Safety Plans (SHSP) and drugged driving. The SHSP Summit provided information to state and local engineers, law enforcement, educators, and emergency medical services (EMS) representatives on development and implementation of Local Strategic Highway Safety Plans. SHSP Summit presentation topics included safety issues and challenges, creating safety culture, data sources, and SHSP planning and development strategies.

Reversing the recent trend of increased crashes involves three key steps: building a good plan, implementation of measures to address risky behaviors, and creating a safety culture. Cultivating and maintaining a safety culture starts at the local level and results from our individual perspective and commitment.

Data serves as the foundation of Maryland’s SHSP development, and supports assessment of strategies and actions during implementation. Data from all component data system—crash, roadway, vehicle, driver, citation and adjudication, and emergency services– are applied to identify issues and validate countermeasures. Maryland Counties and 4E organizations now have access to a web application, called RAVEN, enabling agencies and stakeholders to graphically view crash and citation data for each emphasis area.

Local agencies, such as Price Georges and Washington County, are developing their own SHSPs with support from the MDOT Highway Safety Office

3

and local 4E stakeholders. Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO) are also looking into developing MPO-level SHSPs based on new requirements in the Fast Act.

The Drugged Driving Symposium focused on drugged driving recognition and enforcement including current research, evaluation and recognition, legalization, sobriety testing, and adjudication. Drugged driving is increasing – particularly from marijuana use – in states with legalized recreational use. As legalization increases, and methods of ingestion grow, the risk of additional drugged driving fatalities and serious injuries will increase. Identifying and documenting drugged driving presents challenges for law enforcement. The industry continues to improve drug recognition procedures, testing, standards, and related recommendations.

4

Maryland SHSP Summit

Welcome and Introductions

Christine Nizer, Administrator for the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration, officially opened the Summit and welcomed attendees. The full support from statewide leadership, including Governor Hogan and Transportation Secretary Pete Rahn is a key advantage to successfully accomplishing the goals and targets set forth in the Maryland 2015-2020 Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). Thank you to the Maryland Department of Transportation Highway Safety Office (MHSO) team for their work in convening and coordinating the summit. Ms. Nizer then introduced Pete Rahn, the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) Secretary.

Secretary Rahn posed two key questions to summit attendees: How we are going to save people’s lives? What legacy do we want to leave? Our true legacy lays in what we build, and the lives that we save; everything else we accomplish in the course of our careers can change over time. But these two principles are what we truly leave behind. These two principles align with our development of the SHSP and lowering the number of fatal and serious injury traffic crashes that occur on Maryland roads each year.

In 2016, 523 traffic fatalities occurred on roadways in Maryland. This number represents a 0.5% increase over 2015 traffic fatalities and a 14% increase from 2014. The increase in fatalities may be in part due to an increase in the number of drivers on Maryland roads, as people are driving two (2) billion more miles in Maryland presently than they did in 2015. While this data provides context for the increase in the number of fatalities, it does not mean that we should accept it. Everyone needs to re-think their threshold of acceptable. Maryland’s 91% seatbelt utilization rate, seemingly a high mark, means that 9% of drivers and passengers, equating to millions of miles of travel per year, are not using seatbelts. Of the 523 fatalities in 2016, 61 lives would have been saved if seatbelts had been worn.

5

Secretary Rahn discussed the importance of the SHSP

Currently only two Maryland counties have developed a local SHSP – Prince George’s and Washington. The implementation of the SHSP in Prince George’s County has lowered fatalities, despite an increase in development and population – and therefore an increase in miles driven – throughout the County. All counties should start developing their own SHSP plan, reminding them that resources and assistance is available from the state, but that development and execution of local SHSPs must be driven by local governments and citizens.

Building a Safety Culture at the County Level

Tom Gianni, the Chief of the MDOT Highway Safety Office (MHSO), discussed three steps towards creating and implementing the SHSP and creating a safety culture: 1) build a good plan; 2) develop and implement measures to address risky behaviors; and 3) create a safety culture at the local level.

The number of fatalities over time is affected by technology, laws, and SHSP implementation, among other things, and that progress comes in fits and starts. The goal of the state SHSP is to reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries to 391 and 2,939, respectively, by 2020, and to 296 fatalities and 2,272 serious injuries by 2030. The number of fatalities, the fatality rate per 100 million miles traveled, the number of serious injuries, the serious injury rate per 100 million miles traveled, as well as the combined number of pedestrian and bicycle fatalities and serious injuries are five federally-backed performance measures that can be used to track the progress of the SHSP towards its goals.

Developing effective measures to combat risky behaviors is the cornerstone of the SHSP. Some of the risky behaviors that Maryland focuses on include non-use of personal restraints (seatbelts), aggressive driving, distracted and impaired driving, and behaviors that put pedestrians and bicyclists at risk. Defining these behaviors and providing solutions to minimize these behaviors help create a more effective SHSP.

Building a safety culture in the community is the key to the successful implementation of a SHSP. For example, safety culture is seen in action among the deck crew of aircraft carriers. While the setting can be highly unforgiving, with jets, helicopters, and heavy machinery always moving

around, strict observance of safety precautions and procedures have led to very low fatality rates. Sailors adhere to the tight safety standards because an unparalleled safety culture has been established, and it persists despite high turnover rates in ship crews. Safety culture can persist in the general

6

Tom Gianni detailed the importance of cultivating a safety culture

community as well, if citizens are willing to intervene when risky behaviors are witnessed, particularly by friends and relatives.

Driving may have become too routine in the minds of many drivers, and the dangers of driving may be lost on the greater population. The highway is an unforgiving place in much the same way as the aircraft carrier deck, and must be treated as such. The encouragement of a safety culture is a critical element to creating a safer environment for all road users.

Safety planning needs to be locally developed and owned, because these agencies will have the best understanding of the issues their community faces. A successful SHSP will have the following:

invested executives and administrators, representation from critical stakeholders and the 4E’s (enforcement, engineering, emergency

medical services, and education), local data for use in plan development, a plan to address resources, and a “champion” to lead at the local level.

National Study Center: Trend Data

Tim Kerns of the National Study Center discussed several valuable data sources that can be used when developing an SHSP and took a brief look at overall patterns that can be drawn from the data. Six different data sources were described by Mr. Kerns: crash reports, citation and adjudication data, vehicle registration, driver’s license, roadway data, and injury surveillance data. Crash reports are written by an officer right after a crash has occurred, and usually contain the most comprehensive data out of the noted sources. These reports include crash location, weather information, road conditions, cause, crash type, and notes on any possible injuries or fatalities. Additionally, crash reports often have additional notes written by the officer that provide a first-hand account of the crash. Citation and adjudication data relating to a crash also contains valuable information for SHSP planning, including violation class, the court of adjudication, and

7

Dr. Tim Kerns detailed the data offerings available from the National Study Center

the enforcement agency, among others. Vehicle registration and driver license data can be a valuable tool as well, providing additional information on vehicle type and ownership, and license data provides additional information relating to the driver. Injury surveillance data from hospitals and trauma centers can provide more accurate information regarding injury and fatality crash causes than crash report injury codes. Roadway data can provide information on surface type, roadway width, functional class, and presence of sidewalks, among other things.

Washington College: Risk Analysis of Vehicle and Environmental Networks (RAVEN)

Sean Lynn of Washington College spoke about RAVEN, an interactive online application that combines crash, roadway attributes, pedestrian generators, and other relevant datasets to help law enforcement, SHSP developers, and other stakeholders find trends and patterns. RAVEN allows users to add and remove datasets to their map and find overlaps between various sets of data. Additionally, RAVEN has an option to print out the current map with the selected datasets. The high functionality and versatility of the application, in combination with the type of data found in it, make RAVEN a highly valuable resource for SHSP development and all Emphasis Area teams.

The Aggressive Drivers Are Public Threats (ADAPT) program uses RAVEN as a data source and analytic tool. ADAPT is a public safety initiative between Maryland and the District of Columbia that includes law enforcement, public safety officials, and other experts. ADAPT takes a more data-driven approach to help discover trends and find locations for law enforcement to patrol.

The High Visibility Enforcement (HVE) waves dataset is another resource provided through the use of the RAVEN application. This is a hot spot analysis that is stored in an interactive web map that can be used to help see trends in crash patterns based on data from RAVEN. To gain access to the RAVEN application, Mr. Lynn asked for an email to be sent to: wc_mhso@washcoll.edu, requesting log-in access.

Strategic Highway Safety Panel

The Strategic Highway Safety Panel consisted of four speakers: Kate Mazzara and Karyn McAllister from Prince George’s County, Eric Randall of the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB), and Sgt. John Martin from the Washington County Sheriff’s Department.

8

Prince George’s County Prince George’s county’s Roadway Safety Plan (RSP) is one of the two local safety plans developed statewide. Prince George’s county decided to call the plan a “Roadway” safety plan instead of a highway safety plan in order to cover all roadway types within the county. Safety is directly linked to quality of life. There is a need to elevate the importance of safety to the public, particularly surrounding roadway safety, as crashes are preventable. This is the goal of the RSP set forth by the county. The plan provides historic data, goals, and methods to measure progress; the plan also puts importance on collaboration between local, State, and regional agencies. Prince George’s county worked with MDOT and MWCOG to develop their RSP, following the State’s Towards Zero Death methodology to have a 50% reduction in fatalities by 2030. The RSP uses data-driven approaches and focuses on special populations and vehicles,

such as young and elderly drivers, motorcycles, commercial vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists, with reduction targets for each group. Through the development of the RSP came the establishment of the Prince George’s County Roadway Safety Executive Committee.

Prince George’s County found that their data is not linear, and that baseline data can be misleading. The baseline data that was used to develop the RSP showed historic lows for fatalities, which then impacted their targets.

Prince George’s County made additional recommendations, including incorporation of the 4E’s into the plan and finding a champion who is passionate about the cause and able to spearhead efforts. One challenge in RSP development can be finding staffing resources, therefore using existing teams or committees to do the work, is strongly encouraged. This also includes incorporating municipalities into the County’s plan process, if applicable. Agencies should allow approximately a full year for the development of a local plan.

National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB) Eric Randall went on to explain the role of MPOs, such as the National Capital Regions Transportation Planning Board (TPB), in SHSP development. MPOs channel federal funds to urban areas for use in transportation. One such example of this is the TPB’s Street Smart initiative – a roadway safety education program implemented through mass media. The TPB funds long and short-range transportation priorities through the Financially Constrained Long-Range Plan (CLRP) and the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). Due to the funding sources of these programs, documentation must be kept of each project, making past studies that focus on topics relating to SHSP a

9

The Strategic Highway Safety Panel (L to R: John Martin, Washington County Sherriff's Department; Eric Randall, TPB; Karyn McAllister & Kate Mazzara, Prince George's County).

helpful tool for their development. MPOs also work in conjunction with the state’s SHSP to provide funding through their TIPs.

The last two federal surface transportation reauthorization bills, MAP-21 and the FAST Act, require MPOs and state DOTs to work together and establish performance targets. The Federal Highway Administration (FWHA) requires that States report five performance measures: number of fatalities, fatality rate, number of serious injuries, serious injury rate, and the number of bicycle and pedestrian fatalities. These measures are monitored by the MPO for the region it presides over. Randall and the Transportation Planning Board create targets for Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia, and the National-Capital region as a whole.

Washington County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. John Martin, Traffic Supervisor for the Washington County Sherriff’s Department, offered his and the Sherriff’s perspective on SHSP development and implementation. The County Sherriff was the chairperson of the County SHSP at the start of the plan’s development in November 2016. SHSP initiation though the Sherriff’s office is something that makes Washington County’s SHSP unique. Washington County’s SHSP has brought together the Sherriff’s department, EMS personnel, and County engineers and strengthening communication between the groups. They continue to seek out other agencies with initiatives or programs that will help lead and accomplish local SHSP strategies. As the plan continues to develop, each group is able to provide support to others in their shared missions. For example, the EMS team had community outreach efforts in place, but is now able to partner with the Sherriff’s Department to increase and improve their efforts.

Through the plan’s development, several troubling patterns emerged that now have a course of action thanks to the SHSP. Some areas within Washington County had less guilty rulings for citations. Through the new SHSP, they can recommend that these locations have increased judicial education. Another pattern is an overall increase in fatalities in Washington County, similar to the rest of Maryland. While Washington County has not found a specific trend by location or in crash type, data compiled for and through the SHSP can help identify the cause of the fatality increase. All groups working on the plan have found they receive duplicate complaints, with several agencies working on the same problems independently of one another. Having a formal SHSP process has allowed for more collaboration on these issues, as well as sharing of data and resources. Washington County has shown why SHSP plans are necessary and the benefits they bring to the local community.

MDOT Secretary Press Event

The agenda for the day of the SHSP Summit included a sobering announcement on the part of MDOT Secretary Pete Rahn, who revealed that in 2016, 523 people died in traffic crashes on the state’s roads,

10

up from the 521 who died in 2015. Across the nation, preliminary numbers from the National Safety Council show roadway fatalities rose by more than six percent last year to more than 40,000 total. Secretary Rahn seized on the moment of the announcement to issue a call-to-action to eliminate highway fatalities in Maryland, stating that “every life lost is an avoidable tragedy.”

Flanked by officers from several of the State’s law enforcement agencies, Secretary Rahn stated that driving is an activity which requires our full conscious attention at all times, and outlined the steps that motorists should be taking to properly think ahead every time they start out on a trip:

Have a safe and sober ride. Use a designated driver, call a cab or ride share, or use public transportation.

Park the phone before you drive. Distractions lead to more than 28,000 injuries per year in Maryland.

Always buckle up! It’s the single most important way to save your life in a crash. Adapt your driving behavior. Leave a little early. You won’t feel the need to speed or drive

aggressively. Look twice for pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists, especially when changing lanes or

approaching an intersection. Use crosswalks and bike lanes. Be visible on the road. Wear bright clothing, and cross where

drivers expect to see you.

Move over when approaching an emergency vehicle or tow truck using visual signals. If you are unable to move over, slow down.

“Our motorists need to do the simple things like buckling up, always driving sober, and never driving distracted,” stated MDTA Police Chief Colonel Jerry Jones. “When that doesn’t happen, officers are writing tickets or worse, responding to a deadly crash. Our traffic laws are in place to save lives.”

11

Secretary Rahn, flanked by officers, delivered the unfortunate news of an uptick of highway fatalities in Maryland.

AAA Drugged Driving Symposium

Welcome

The second half of the day began with a welcome from Ragina Cooper Averella, the Public and Government Affairs Manager for AAA. She provided an overview of the afternoon agenda and introduced the next speaker, Nathan Warren-Kigenyi.

Latest Drugged Driving Research: A National Perspective

Nathan Warren-Kigenyi with AAA shared the most recent research conducted on drugged driving, particularly regarding the legalization of medical and recreational marijuana use in the United States. There has been a 50% increase between 2007 and 2014 in the number of nighttime weekend drivers with marijuana in their system in Washington State, where recreational marijuana has been legalized. There has also been an increase from 8% to 17% in fatal crashes in which one or more drivers used marijuana (not combined with any other drug use) in Washington after 2012. States like Washington with legalized recreational marijuana use “per se laws” (i.e. laws based on a certain concentration of a drug in the bloodstream) to help regulate and enforce drugged driving by setting a legal limit for the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) that can be found in a person’s system while operating a motor vehicle.

Through research, AAA has found that per se laws are often not founded in science. Those arrested for a DUI fell below the THC threshold set by the per se law and that other drugs were often in their system in addition to the marijuana. Because of this it is recommended that patrol officers use cues in the driver’s

behavior in addition to ordering drug testing to confirm a DUI. Measuring drugged driving presents several issues and can be difficult for officers in the field. Marijuana drug testing is expensive and not widely available, so when a driver is found to have high enough blood alcohol content (BAC), authorities decline to test for other drugs. Therefore, the true incidence of marijuana being involved in crash is generally under-reported, simply because tests are not conducted. Another difficulty is polydrug use, where a person has more than one drug in their system. Polydrug use makes it hard to determine which drug has had the greater effect on the person. Lastly, with marijuana use, the highest levels of THC in the blood don’t correspond with the highest levels of impairment, due to the fat-

12

Nathan Warren-Kigenyi reviewed the findings of AAA's national study of drugged driving trends.

soluble nature of THC (unlike alcohol, which is water soluble); this means that the THC level required to cause impairment may vary across individuals.

Due to these facts, the official stance of AAA regarding recreational marijuana is to oppose legalization due to traffic safety implications. AAA’s next steps are to look at prescription and over the counter drug use, develop training for judges who oversee drug cases, and leverage alcohol countermeasures for drugged driving and determine if they can be directly implied.

Understanding Legal Marijuana, LLC

Chris Halsor, founder of Understanding Legal Marijuana, LLC, spoke on the state of legalized marijuana in the United States. He noted that marijuana is illegal at the federal level, but enforcement of federal marijuana laws is based on priorities outlined in the Ogden & Cole memos. Federal agencies will only make arrest in conflict with state laws when exacerbating circumstances, such as sale to minors or interstate trafficking are involved. This trend will likely continue under the current Presidential Administration. The limits of what is legal under state marijuana laws are usually based on the weight of the product and/or the number of plants it is legal to cultivate.

The predominance of marijuana legalization by ballot measures means that marijuana advocates are writing the laws regarding possession and use. Most often, the state starts with the legalization of medicinal marijuana, which may evolve into the legalization of recreational marijuana. As of 2017, more than half of the US has legalized medicinal marijuana. Due to marijuana’s Federal status as a Class A drug, doctors are not able to write a prescription for it; instead, they might recommend or refer it to a

patient. Without a prescription, the specifics of the marijuana use, including potency, frequency of use, form to be administered, and number of refills are absent, leaving the specifics of the recommendation up to the user.

DUI research on marijuana’s effects are primarily funded through the National Institute of Health (NIH), although these studies don’t use marijuana with THC levels comparable to those found on the street. All marijuana used in federally funded research must be supplied by a single lab at the University of Mississippi, which has an average THC content of 2-6%. This greatly varies from what is found outside of the lab, where THC levels range from 13% up to almost 99%, depending on the source and intake method. Because of this, these studies do not accurately describe the effects of marijuana.

13

Chris Halsor gave a deeply detailed presentation on the scientific and legal issues surrounding legalized marijuana.

While a person cannot have an overdose from marijuana, users can die from the resulting impaired judgement of marijuana use. Detecting marijuana use in the field has become more difficult as users shift away from smoking to other forms such as vape pens and edibles, something particularly true of younger users. Additionally, field sobriety test that are used for alcohol are generally ineffective for marijuana. One issue with field testing is that the time for the peak effect of marijuana differs by type: smoked buds produces an immediate high that tapers off over time, while edibles may take over an hour to peak in effect, but last up to twelve hours. Because of these variations, 5 nanograms (ng) is no longer considered a good indicator for impairment, although many states still use this as their legal intoxication threshold. Some state are stricter than others. In Washington D.C., it is not legal to sell marijuana or possess more than 2 oz., and edibles and concentrates are illegal, while states like Maine and Massachusetts are much more liberal and have social “pot clubs”.

One of the most commonly known tests for marijuana use is a urine test; these only detect the metabolized by-product of THC, which can be found in the system for up to 30 days, making them ineffective for testing current levels of intoxication. For officers in the field, marijuana use can be difficult to describe and explain because it creates a mental impairment, with few to no physical side effects. This also makes it more difficult to support the argument of a high driver in court. Training for identification of drugged driving is crucial, either through a DRE training program for qualified officers, or Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) training for patrol officers.

Perspective from the Field

Kyle Clark, from the Institute of Police Technology and Management, described eight different drug categories. Each category is unique and differ in their effects on users. Individuals encountered under the influence of each drug type should be handled very differently by officers in the field.

Central Nervous System (CNS) Depressant drugs affect the body’s central nervous system and include alcohol, anti-depressants, and anti-anxiety medication. The side effect from these drugs will look like the side effects of alcohol, including blurred vision, loss of balance, and trouble with depth perception. CNS impairing prescription drugs are not exempt from DUIs, and prescription use paired with alcohol use can exacerbate side effects.

CNS Stimulants include cocaine, methamphetamine, and Ritalin. Those who are under the influence of a CNS stimulant might exhibit ADHD-type symptoms, have dilated pupils, are

14

Kyle Clark described field drug recognition characteristics, evaluation, and testing.

often more talkative, and possibly aggressive. Symptoms of CNS stimulants can be replicated through high doses of legal products that are high in caffeine.

Hallucinogens, such as LSD, MDMA, peyote, salvia, and ecstasy, cause the user to have dilated pupils, sensory alterations, confusion, and bizarre behavior.

Dissociative Anesthetics, including drugs such as DXM, PCP, and some cough medicines, cause bizarre behavior, confusion, blurred vision, and slow reflexes. Users describe the feeling as “floating,” and they have either a dulled sense of pain or none at all.

Narcotic analgesics, like morphine, heroin, codeine, oxycodone, or methadone, will cause constricted pupils, slowed reflexes, drowsiness, and impaired attention.

Inhalants include aerosols, volatile solvents, gasoline, and anesthetic gasses (laughing gas). Users of inhalants exhibit behavior similar to alcohol impairment. They may be slow to react and feel light-headed, and may frequently re-administer the drug due to the short high it produces. These drugs cause oxygen deprivation to the brain, and may cause the person to pass out. Inhalants are difficult to detect in toxicology.

Cannabis, which produces THC, is the final drug category. Cannabis users can exhibit bizarre behavior depending on the intake method, and can have vision impairment and impaired judgement. Symptoms of cannabis use are exacerbated by alcohol.

Drug impaired driving is on the rise. A study conducted with 30,000 drivers found that 20% had alcohol in their system, 12.6% had marijuana, and 15% had other drugs. One resource that can be used by the public to find out how certain medications and substances affect driving is roadwiserx.com; use of a tool such as this can help lower intoxicated driving incidents. Maryland laws on drugged driving differ from other states in that regulations on drugged driving are based on the level of impairment, not the specific drugs used. a recipe for safer roads includes: knowledge, laws, compliance, enforcement, and prosecution.

Challenges with Drugged Driving: Problems and Solutions Panel

Tom Woodward, Maryland’s DRE coordinator, and Melissa G. Shear, the Assistant Attorney General for the District of Columbia, discussed the Maryland DRE program and DUI arrests in D.C., respectively. Maryland conducts two (2) DRE schools each year, though despite the increase in training and certifications in Maryland, there is a low DRE retention rate. In the past year, 85 officers were trained, but only 33 officers were retained. Becoming a DRE is difficult and requires additional training and learning, but officers do not receive additional compensation for the added responsibilities as a DRE. Across the state there are not enough DREs to have a person on-call around the clock, and that not all counties have a DRE. DREs can be found throughout the state, with the highest concentration of DREs in Montgomery and Baltimore Counties. Maryland uses a paging system when a DRE is needed, but not all

15

agencies can respond to the call because they either do not have overtime funding or do not have an officer on call that is close enough to respond.

Melissa G. Shear spoke on DUI arrests in the D. C. area, noting that arrests for DUIs are generally higher on weekends. About 1/3 of DUI arrest in D.C. are of Maryland drivers, with the majority of DUI arrests coming from multiple offenders. Despite multiple offenses, a DUI offense does not escalate above a misdemeanor. Blood testing can be administered when a DUI arrest takes place, but only about 50% of tests come back with a positive reading for any given substance. This is in part because not all drugs, particularly hallucinogens and inhalants, are able to be tested. These tests also have nine month turnaround with limited personnel to do the testing.

The District of Columbia faces a challenge in DUI arrests for enhanced police officer training to increase officers’ ability to detect drugs. Additionally, body-worn cameras do not capture everything that may be needed to successfully prosecute someone with a DUI, as these cameras do not capture things the officer hears or smells, and may also miss something an officer sees while in the field. Difficulties also arise when testing blood and urine. If the BAC is greater than 0.8 in a person, the officer will not look for other drug use. If a driver refuses to take a test, then the officer must acquire a search warrant, which takes additional time. Challenges also arise in the courtroom, where prosecutor education and juror perception need to be addressed. While judges and juries can identify alcohol impairment, it can be more difficult for them to condemn impairments caused by legal medications. Judges do not want to listen to impaired driving education from the prosecution; therefore pointing them to a third party source could be a better avenue to educate them.

16

Feedback SummarySummit participants were asked to complete a short survey (see copy of survey to evaluate the content and experience of the SHSP Summit evaluation form. Sixty-one participants, or 38 percent of 160 total participants, completed and submitted the survey. Below are highlights drawn from the submitted surveys.

Participants were asked to indicate their discipline, rank the morning presentations on a scale from one (Not Useful) to five (Useful), and answer Yes or No questions. The tables below summarize their responses. More than 50% of the responders come from Enforcement or Education occupants; all the presentations received above a 4 out of 5 average rating; and 81 percent of responders indicated that there was sufficient information to allow participants to join and support an EA Team, while 19 percent indicated there was not sufficient information.

Discipline Presentations AverageEnforcement 27% Building Safety Culture at the Jurisdictional Level 4.3Engineering 17% National Study Center - Trend Data 4.3Public Health 12% Washington College - RAVEN 4.3Planner 7% Jurisdictional SHSP Panel 4.0Research 3% Overall experience at the Highway Safety Summit 4.5Education 32%Other 3%

Questions / Answers Yes No Not Applicable

Was sufficient information provided during the Summit to encourage you to join and support an Emphasis Area Team?

81% 19% 0%

Was sufficient information provided during the Summit to encourage you to develop or join a jurisdictional Strategic Highway Safety Plan?

82% 13% 5%

Did you sign up to be part of an Emphasis Area Team? 26% 60% 14%Do you plan to develop a local SHSP plan in your area? 37% 49% 14%I would like more information about developing a local plan. 33% 57% 10%I am interested in supporting a local plan. 71% 21% 8%

The evaluation form also asked participants about their most beneficial and least beneficial experience during the Summit, suggestions for the next Summit, and any additional comments. Major take-a-ways included:

17

Responder’s most beneficial experience varied; the points below were most often cited: o Variety of speakers and topics. o RAVEN presentation.o Explanation of safety culture.o Drugged driving symposium including statistics and understanding marijuana and DREs. o The ability to network, make local contacts, and improve communications between

agencies. o Local SHSP development examples and shared experience.

Responders’ least beneficial experiences during the Summit ranged from Nothing, to Opening presentations, to Press Conference, to Vendors, to the SHSP Panel.

At future Safety Summits, responders’ indicated they would like to learn about occupant safety, congestion management, automated vehicles, sleepy driving, work zones, and more on drugged driving, among others. Two responders suggested that MHSO hold a workshop on how to develop a SHSP for the local agencies.

Open ended comments ranged from Great Job MHSO! Thank you!, to Consider a 4:00pm dismissal, to Are PowerPoints available on the website?, to Need a summit focused on passenger and child safety.

18