WEST VOLUSIA COMMUNITY TRAFFIC SAFETY TEAM

MINUTES OF MEETING - MAY 9, 2000

Those Present:

The meeting of the West Volusia Community Traffic Safety Team was called to order at 8:40 am

The minutes from last month's meeting were passed out for everyone to review. A motion was then made and seconded to approved last month's minutes.

Someone asked if the minutes to our meetings were being posted on the Internet. The answer was no, but that they could in the future.

John Izzo introduced Ms. Alice Cyrus, who presented an invention she developed to help reduce the amount of bicycle and pedestrian injuries due to automobile drivers not being able to see children while it is dark. Her invention was a type of flexible florescent lights that could attach to children's back packs. Ms. Alice Cyrus mentioned that she was trying to get a $400,000 grant from the Orange County Tobacco program.  John Izzo thought that for this product to be successful that it would have to be inexpensive so all families could afford it for their kids.  A motion was made and seconded to endorse the concept of Ms. Cyrus' invention.

Problems and Solutions

John Izzo then asked Tony Nosse to discuss the "Problems & Solutions" report that he prepares monthly. Tony went over five projects, which were:

John Izzo then asked if anyone had any comments on the "Traffic Safety Problem Solver List" which was passed out prior to the beginning of the meeting. A lot of changes regarding contact personnel were made. John mentioned that he will make those changes and update the list for the Committee.

John Izzo then asked if there were any new problems to be discussed. Art Brown asked about the turn arrows that were in place during the DeLand streetscape project that have now been removed at US 17/92 and Howry Avenue and US 17/92 and Wisconson. Garry Lester stated that those turn arrows were put in place solely for the construction of the streetscape project. Jon Cheney stated that this would be a good project to look into to see if left turn arrows are needed in this area.

Malcolm Smith asked if the signs were replaced on SR 44 and Howry Ave after the streetscape project was completed - need to see if the signage is correct.

John Izzo then went over the monthly crash statistics. There wasn't any handouts available, but John did state that the County was currently working on December. So by next meeting the Committee will have a full year's worth of data to review. John did mention that there have been 32 fatalities so far this year - there were 92 for all of 1999.

Barry Wall from FDOT went over the "CTST Monthly Advisory" newsletter that he produces. Barry stated that he will be bringing the newsletter to the CTST meeting each month.

Someone asked if this newsletter would be available on the Internet. The answer was no, since Barry would be bringing it to our meetings.

Barry discussed in detail one of the programs listed in the newsletter, which was the "Saved by the Belt Calender." This program uses law enforcement officers that have been in non-chargeable accidents and were saved by the use of seatbelts. The Florida Highway Patrol is looking for candidates to participate in their 2001 Calender.

Joe Cohen (Volusia County Sheriff's Office) and Diane Camacho (Healthy Start) gave an update on the car seat check they conducted in Orange City (CTST member Malcolm Smith also participated in this function). They checked 18 car seats in vehicles. Out of these 9 were replaced. None of the vehicles inspected had correctly installed their car seats.

Rick Prine mentioned that he attended a MADD meeting at DBCC on May 8th. Rick relayed a few items related to drunk driving: MADD was created in 1980, there were 28,000 deaths last year due to drunk driving, there have been approximately 2,400 drunk driving legislative changes in the US since MADD's inception, there has been an average of 1.4 million DUI arrests each year, and DUI's are the most frequently committed violent crime. Rick requested that Lt. Bill Hightower provide a MADD presentation to the West Volusia CTST at their June 13, 2000 meeting. The members agreed this would be a good idea.

At this time the committee took a 10 minute break.

After the break John Izzo called the West Volusia Community Traffic Safety Team back to order.

John Izzo opened the floor for a round table discussion to see if anyone had any topics they wanted to discuss.

Ken Harley (FDOT) discussed the CTST brochure to see if there were any comments/suggestions to be made by the committee members. There was a suggestion to add 1999 and 2000 Bikeweek Fatalities information to the brochure.

The slogan for the brochure was thought to be too long. It was suggested that the slogan be shortened to something like "Don't Let This Be You".

Also discussed was a banner that FDOT was going to buy for the Volusia County CTST's. Discussion centered around the width of the banner (36" versus 24") and the banner's slogan. Garry Lester pointed out experience has proven a 36" banner will not hold up well during high winds. Therefore, if a 36" banner made from netting is not available, we will have to order a 24" width. The agreed upon slogan was "Ride Safe - Ride Sober"

John Izzo then introduced Boots to inform us of the crash analysis work she is performing on this past year's Bikeweek. Boots will be looking at a 15 day period, which can be reduced to 10 days consistent with previous years analyzes.

Art Brown opened discussion on the parallel efforts that this group is focusing on, which is similar to what other organizations throughout Volusia are already doing. One example was the Bike Crash investigation, which has multiple groups conducting similar analyzes such as the CDC from Atlanta and the State Attorney's office, plus the work that the CTST's and Boots are doing.

John Izzo passed out brochures on how to conduct seatbelt surveys.

Garry Lester from the Volusia County Traffic Engineering Department discussed four on-going County projects.

• SR 472 - the project is expected to be completed in October
• Howland Blvd/Wolf Pack Run intersection at Deltona High School traffic signal has been installed
• Veterans Memorial Parkway (VMP) - dual left turn lanes installed - traffic on VMP already at 10,000 vehicles per day
• Veterans Memorial Parkway/Harley Strickland Blvd traffic signal will be installed in conjunction with the new Home Depot

Finally, Art Brown (Florida Highway Patrol) stated that there will be a Memorial Day DUI check point on Friday night, May 26th from 9 pm to 12 am. Art stated that DUI check points usually net between 11 to 15 DUI and drug related arrests.

This concluded the business of the West Volusia Community Traffic Safety Team. It was adjourned at 10:30 am.

NEXT AGENDA

WEST VOLUSIA COMMUNITY TRAFFIC SAFETY TEAM MEETING

INTRODUCTION
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS - Tony Nosse, FDOT
CRASH STATISTICS - John Izzo, Consultant
NEW BUSINESS

BREAK

ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION