The Arizona Department of Transportation just released the Arizona Motor Vehicle Crash Facts report and the news on traffic deaths isn’t good. Despite lower traffic volume during parts of 2020 due to the pandemic, the number of traffic fatalities rose to its highest level in 12 years.

We lost 1,057 individuals in 2020 compared to 980 in 2019 in traffic collisions. That means 1,057 individuals did not make it safely home to their loved ones. That’s tragic!

What can be done to reduce the number of traffic fatalities? Changing driver behavior is key. 

According to the report, leading factors in traffic fatalities include speeding, impairment, reckless driving and not wearing a seatbelt. We need drivers to stop speeding and make safe lane changes. We need both drivers and passengers to wear seat belts at all times. Being an alert and safe driver means everyone can make it safely home each and every day.

There is some good news in the crash facts report. We saw a decrease in the number of alcohol-related fatalities from 181 deaths in 2020 compared to 258 in 2019, a 30% drop. Motorcycle-related fatalities were also down from 170 deaths in 2019 to 160 in 2020.

ADOT has developed and implemented several important safety measures on state highways or freeways to help reduce traffic fatalities and crashes. They include:

• A dust detection system on Interstate 10 in southern Arizona. The system alerts drivers of a dust storm using overhead message boards and employs variable speed limit signs to instruct drivers to slow down. 
• Our wrong-way driving detection system also uses the digital overhead message boards to warn drivers to take the nearest exit to avoid a crash, illuminates wrong-way signage at exit ramps and alerts law enforcement agencies immediately where the wrong-way driver is on the freeway.

ADOT’s annual crash facts report is a compilation of traffic crash reports provided by law enforcement agencies around the state. The report reflects crash data for all Arizona roadways, including city streets, county roads, reservation roads and state highways.

ADOT and other state agencies can’t solve the problem alone of reducing crashes, fatalities and injuries because more than two-thirds of crashes occur on roads other than state highways. 

Let’s all do our part to change driver behavior and reduce the number of traffic fatalities and crashes in Arizona. If you have a new or young teen driver in the family, be a good example of what a safe driver should be. Don’t speed. Don’t text. Use your turn signal. Make safe lane changes. Wear your seat belt and insist all passengers do the same. 

I want you to arrive safely home to your loved ones, each and every day!

Fires are burning in several areas of the state. Residents have been evacuated from their homes. Wildfire responders are working tirelessly to get control and put the fires out. Roads in active fire areas are closed. ADOT does not decide which roads to close. Closures are determined by Fire Incident Commanders who work in conjunction with law enforcement and ADOT. ADOT’s job is to staff the closures to ensure motorists do not go around a barrier or other method used to shut down a road. 

Closing a road to traffic, especially when people have homes in the area, is a tough decision. But the decision must be made in active fire areas to keep fire responders safe from traffic while they do their work, and to keep motorists out of dangerous areas and potentially becoming another problem for emergency personnel. ADOT is doing its part by urging motorists to obey all road restrictions and heed cautions issued by ADOT workers in and around areas affected by fire-related road closures.

ADOT crews are reporting encounters with motorists who are angry and demand to be allowed to drive on a closed highway. Brett Rupp, an ADOT Highway Operations Technical Supervisor in Payson says, “ADOT maintenance crews live in and around the communities we serve and some of us have had to evacuate ourselves and our families. It’s unfortunate when one of our crewmembers is confronted by an upset motorist because people may not realize what that person standing in the heat and smoke for several hours is going through. His or her home may be at risk, but they are still on the job protecting the community.”

“We understand that especially for people who live in areas affected by a wildfire, this is a very stressful situation for the entire community,” said Rod Lane, an ADOT District Engineer, who has handled fire-related closures for a number of years. “Our maintenance crews who close these roads do it to ensure that emergency responders can use the roads to access fire areas, evacuate residents and keep people out of harm's way. We’re doing our best to keep everyone safe.”

Our ADOT crews would much rather be doing their regular work of repairing guardrails, pavement and cleaning up trash left by motorists, but public safety comes first. Our ADOT crews want the roads to their communities and yours to be open as soon as it is safe to do so. Belligerent behavior toward ADOT personnel will not convince them to let you pass through the barriers, nor will it help to open the road faster. Our motorists can do their part by remaining calm, practicing the Golden Rule and making driving safely their top priority to keep ADOT emergency personnel focused on fighting the fires.  

For updated information on road conditions and restrictions, visit az511.gov.

It’s got to be one of the worst phone calls to receive as a state department of transportation director. To find out you have an injured employee or, even worse, a fatality in a work zone – something that is totally preventable if people are driving safely through a work zone.

It’s a call I did receive on March 4, 2020. Frank Dorizio, a member of the Arizona Department of Transportation’s Incident Response Unit, was killed while on duty, setting up a sign alerting drivers to pavement repairs along Interstate 10 south of the Phoenix area. He was the first ADOT worker since 1998 to be struck and killed while working along a highway.

Two contractor employees have been injured this year – one a fatality. The fatality occurred on State Route 347 near the city of Maricopa, while the injured construction worker was part of a paving project on Interstate 10 near Benson this past week.

With April 26-30 designated as “Work Zone Awareness Week,” it’s important to remind everyone of the need for work zone safety.

At ADOT, we put safety first when establishing work zones. We designate work zones with signage, barricades, cones and orange or yellow vests. We want to ensure workers and drivers have enough space to safely navigate through a work zone. 

Besides our transportation crews, we have first responders like law enforcement, firefighters and tow truck operators who also need a safe area to work.

We just need drivers to pay attention when entering work zones. National data shows motorists are the ones killed most frequently in work zones because of speed and not paying attention.

If you would like to learn more about National Work Zone Awareness Week, you can watch the YouTube video and visit this website.

Our True North, Safely Home, means we want you and your loved ones to arrive home safely. 

This holds true for our ADOT employees who deserve to get Safely Home, every day.

Being in a work zone is a risk our construction and maintenance crews take on each and every day. Please pay attention while driving through work zones!

Why all the “buzz” about distracted driving? With more than 10,000 drivers involved in crashes who were engaged in distracted driving behavior in our state in 2019, it is a stark reminder how important it is to be a responsible driver when you get behind the wheel.

April is National Distracted Driving Awareness month. I wish we didn’t have to dedicate a month to bring attention to the dangers of distracted driving. But with the number of crashes rising and the inattentive drivers we see daily on our roads, we need to call attention to this public safety issue.

At the Arizona Department of Transportation, we launched a distracted driving awareness campaign last year called “Distracted Drivers Terrify Me.” The campaign features regular people doing jobs most of us would find frightening &dnash; a snake handler, to an electrical lineman, to a high-rise window washer. We now have added a beekeeper to the 30-second public service announcement videos. You can watch them at azdot.gov/terrify.

We need to change driver behavior – a message I have shared more than once. Being a responsible driver is the key to reducing the number of crashes and keeping our roadways safe for everyone. 

Don’t “bee” a distracted driver!

Your input matters. The public comment period has begun for the Arizona Department of Transportation’s Tentative Five-Year Construction Program. You have until 5 p.m. June 3 to weigh-in and let us know where you think ADOT should spend its resources, to improve the state’s transportation system.

You can find the Tentative 2022-2026 Five-Year Transportation Facilities Construction Program at azdot.gov/tentative5year. It identifies proposed highway, freeway and airport capital improvement projects in the state. The document also provides projected costs and fiscal year when these proposed projects would begin.

We have several options for you to choose from, in offering your comments on the tentative program:

• Complete an online comment form at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ADOTFiveYearPlan
• Attend the virtual public hearings of the State Transportation Board on April 16, May 21 and June 3 - all start at 9 a.m. Meeting information can be found at http://aztransportationboard.gov
• Email: [email protected]
• Call the bilingual phone line at 1-855-712-8530
• Mail ADOT: Attn: Daina Mann, c/o ADOT Communications, 1655 W. Jackson Street, Room 179, MD 126F, Phoenix, AZ 85007

I encourage you to offer your comments on this important process, to help determine where ADOT should spend its resources and improve the state’s transportation system. 

Your input matters!

Designing bridges and roads. Surveying land and streams. Improving road safety. Maintaining existing transportation infrastructure. These responsibilities and more reflect the work our engineers perform daily at the Arizona Department of Transportation. Whether you are a bridge, civil, roadway, survey, traffic or transportation technology engineer, your work matters and makes a difference in the communities we serve. Therefore, I am proud to recognize our engineers for National Engineers Week, Feb. 21-27, under the theme “Inspiring Wonder.”

Building a safe and efficient transportation system requires the skills of many talented engineers and support staff. It takes knowledge and teamwork to design and operate a state transportation system. I see the accomplishments our engineers achieve every day. It is especially rewarding when our teams are recognized, both locally and nationally, for projects that serve the traveling public. Examples are the wrong-way driver detection and dust storm detection systems, and the one-year-old Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway.

Having the right skill set to build bridges and roads, and implement safety measures requires an interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education. It is never too early to pique the interest of children in the field of engineering and inspire a world of wonder.

Our national award-winning ADOT Kids program is an example of teamwork and the work of our engineers. We created ADOT Kids in an effort to educate children about transportation and to keep it fun. From learning how snowplows operate, to building a bridge and decorating our roadways with unique designs, to creating highway safety messages and Keeping Arizona Grand, ADOT Kids has been a huge hit with children, parents and educators. Our ADOT engineers and employees have enlightened the community by serving as subject matter experts in answering questions from children. 

I have the most deep respect for the engineering community. I congratulate our engineers on this special week of recognition. They do indeed inspire wonder in our communities and are worthy of us saying ‘thank you’ for the work they do.

For many of us, thinking about renewing our driver license rarely crosses our mind. Sure, we  update it with a new address when we move and some change their name after getting married, but the first time most of us will actually renew our driver license is when we turn 65 years old.

For about 75,000 Arizonans, many of whom are making safe and healthy choices to limit time spent outside their home, renewing their license was a growing concern. Those 75,000 Arizonans – all of them older than 65 – would have seen their driver licenses expire in January and February of 2021. Fortunately, they can continue to focus their attention on their health and delay a trip to an Arizona Motor Vehicle Division office.

Recently, Governor Doug Ducey issued an Executive Order that deferred renewals of standard Arizona driver licenses with an expiration date between March 1, 2020, and Feb. 28, 2021, by one year from their original expiration date. This extension minimizes in-person visits to MVD offices for older adults and helps reduce the spread of COVID-19. That’s something we can all support. 

Although many of us use online methods to update our driver license throughout our lives, state law requires that persons age 65 and older must come into an MVD office to renew their driver license every five years and obtain a new credential with a new photograph. MVD is working on implementing a variety of low-touch or no-touch service options, including the potential for online renewal services in the future.

Ensuring the safety of our employees and customers during the public health emergency has been a driving force in implementing contactless options for most MVD services. In April, we launched AZMVDNow.gov, which allows customers to complete more than 30 services, including common ones like registration renewal, change of address, title transfers, sold notices and more. 

The last year brought a lot of change in just about every aspect of our lives. When it comes to engaging with the MVD, through the improvements we’ve made to increase customer convenience, we think that change is for the better. As we prepare to spring into the new year – I know we’re all eager to leave behind 2020 – I wish for everyone a healthy 2021.

“Fender Bender? Save your rear, Quickly clear” – you may have seen this message on our digital message boards statewide. It was a reminder to move your vehicle safely onto a shoulder or exit and stay out of travel lanes if involved in a minor crash. This message was part of the national effort to bring attention to the importance of traffic incident management (TIM). The ultimate goal is to keep everyone safe – law enforcement, tow truck operators, fire and emergency personnel, ADOT crew members and the traveling public – when responding to crashes on our roadways.

Emergency responders train year after year in handling crash scenes. Even with the inability to train in-person this year due to COVID-19, our ADOT crews participated with others in a virtual training session that highlighted TIM techniques through the use of videos and staged demonstrations. If you are interested in what our crews learned, you the watch embedded video that depicts TIM techniques in action.

Drivers can also do their part by practicing what we call “Quick Clearance.” If a driver is involved in a minor crash without injuries, state law requires them to move their vehicle from the roadway if it is operable and can be moved safely. You don’t have to wait for law enforcement to arrive before moving your vehicle out of the way as long as there are no injuries.

State law also requires drivers to “Move Over” one travel lane, if safe to do so, or slow down when approaching personnel on the side of the road with flashing lights.

Even though we designate one week in November to spotlight the importance of traffic incident management, it requires cooperation from everyone, all-year round. From trained personnel to the traveling public, everyone needs to stay alert and drive safely.

Our True North at ADOT – Safely Home – means we want everyone to get safely home!

Do you remember a teacher or parent reminding you to not color outside the lines? We were expected to have our pictures neat and pretty while obeying the coloring rules. Not a lot of opportunity to be creative and think outside the box… even if it is just coloring.

Well, I have challenged our leaders at the Arizona Department of Transportation to “color outside the lines” and help our employees find ways to balance the needs of their children while meeting their ADOT responsibilities. Let me explain.

These unprecedented times have indeed brought challenges to all of us. This is ever more apparent for our ADOT parents who have school-aged children. They had to quickly transition to virtual learning by their children for the rest of the spring semester. With many schools still operating under virtual classroom settings or hybrid models right now, we have parents who are doing the best they can in making sure their children are keeping up with schoolwork while they themselves are keeping up with daily assignments at work.

To fully understand these challenges and acquire the data to help find solutions, we surveyed our employees to find out the number of them who have children under the age of 18 and the number of school-age dependents. More than 40% of our employees have children under the age of 18. While a majority of the children are in middle school through high school grades, about 27% of them are in the elementary grades of kindergarten to fifth grade. Our ADOT parents have to be there for their children.

I have directed our leaders to talk to their team members who are struggling and to be flexible. Let’s discuss a number of potential solutions like teleworking and staggered schedules where available and appropriate. The bottom line is we want our employees to work and to let them know we are here to support them.

It’s finding creative solutions, to identify that balance with back-to-school demands and work. I call this “coloring outside the lines.”

Driver behavior is a leading factor in more than 90% of crashes.  Distracted driving is just one of the primary contributors to the rising number of traffic incidents on our roadways … the other factors are speeding, impairment and aggressive driving. Being a responsible driver is the key to reducing the number of crashes and keeping our roadways safe for everyone.

The Arizona Department of Transportation looks for creative ways to communicate our messages to drivers, to behave responsibly behind the wheel. You are familiar with our safety message contest. We receive thousands of entries and select two or three that appear on our electronic message boards statewide. The messages tell drivers to be responsible behind the wheel.

Bringing attention to distracted driving required the same creative mindset. Last week, we launched a distracted driving awareness campaign, “Distracted Drivers Terrify Me.”  I highly recommend that you watch the first of three 30-second public service announcement videos at azdot.gov/terrify. The campaign features regular people doing jobs most of us would find frightening – a snake handler to an electrical lineman.

The bottom line is this – we need to change driver behavior. We need everyone to be responsible drivers. Put down the phone. Don’t play with the radio dial. Don’t take your eyes off the road. Be responsible. 

Right now, distracted drivers terrify me!