Have you ever felt helpless to address something important because it seemed too big or too challenging?  Heard about the dreams or aspirations of others and dismissed them as impossible?  The elimination of serious injuries and deaths due to crashes on our roadways is something that many believe is too big to tackle, and so often serious crashes and their results are accepted as just a part of life.  This can lead to documents like this one examining yesterday’s numbers related to highway safety and focusing on “reducing” or “moving toward zero” instead of focusing on people and prioritizing the task at hand – preventing serious injuries and deaths – from this very moment forward.  When each of us uses the transportation system – whether driving a car or riding a motorcycle, walking or cycling, driving a truck or taking a bus – isn’t our goal for each trip one that is free from crashes, injuries and fatalities?  If this is the goal for each individual trip how could our overall goal be different.
While we can’t turn back time and reduce yesterday’s outcomes, everyone who uses our transportation system can contribute to the prevention of these serious outcomes going forward – and ultimately that’s what it’s going to take.  When the clock struck midnight yesterday that day ended and a new day began – a day where it was possible that TODAY could be a day where Zero people in Kentucky died from being involved in a traffic crash. That is what this calendar represents – 2018 days where no  traffic crashes in Kentucky resulted in lost life. 62 days in 2018 – approximately one out of every six days – ended with no crash in Kentucky resulting in a death. Every day has such potential!
A successful future is one where:
Zero lives are lost, Zero families are shattered, and Zero trips result in injury or death – isn’t that the only realistic goal?
This will require many efforts: preventing crashes in the first place by educating drivers about safe behaviors; law enforcement agencies enforcing traffic safety laws; reducing the severity of those crashes that do occur through infrastructure improvements; providing timely, well-equipped emergency medical services (EMS) for those who need them; and through the passage of legislation focused on safer transportation.
Our goal for this plan is for everyone who reads it to understand how they can contribute to a Kentucky where Zero isn’t a dream, it is the reality – every trip, every time.

Emphasis Area Selection
For this SHSP, a comprehensive analysis of crash data was conducted to identify trends, patterns, and opportunities. Crash analysis included fatalities, serious injuries, fatal and serious injury rates, location of crashes, roadway features, behavioral factors, drivers, vehicle types, and non-motorized roadway users. Within this analysis, Kentucky’s data for these categories were compared to bordering states and the national average to situate Kentucky’s highway safety performance. Data for each of the emphasis areas from the 2015-2019 Plan were updated and analyzed. Particular attention was given to relationships
within the emphasis area data to stress the complexity and interconnectedness of crashes in terms of roadway attributes, human behavior, and roadway users.

The chart to the right shows the percentage of all crashes and crash fatalities + serious injuries from 2014 to 2018 for which each of the emphasis areas were involved. At 56 percent, Roadway Departure accounted for the highest number of fatalities and serious injuries, despite only being involved in 30 percent of all crashes. Aggressive Driving was the second most involved factor at 32 percent of all fatalities and serious injuries and 26 percent of all crashes. Distracted Driving had the highest involvement of all crashes at 43 percent and was involved in 31 percent of all fatalities and serious injuries.
The other three emphasis areas – Occupant Protection,
Vulnerable Road Users, and Impaired Driving – were each
involved in less than 5 percent of all crashes. However, their involvement in fatalities and serious injuries was much higher, at 23 percent, 18 percent, and 16 percent, respectively. Only 5 percent of fatalities and serious injuries did not involve one of the six emphasis areas. Overall, 21 percent of all crashes did not involve an emphasis area.