Highway Safety Improvement Program

Vision - Kentucky's Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) is committed to preventing fatalities and serious injuries on all pubic roadways in Kentucky.

Mission - To help people reach their transportation destinations safely by developing and delivering a data-informed, strategic approach to improving highway safety with a focus on performance.

Goal - To invest in safety improvement opportunities aimed at preventing serious crashes to help achieve Kentucky’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan goal of having the annual number of highway deaths at or below 500 by the year 2029, with an eventual ultimate goal of zero deaths from crashes.

Kentucky's HSIP: a team striving for Zero.

So far, during calendar year 2025, there have been 60 days without a transportation-related fatality. If we can achieve 60 days without a life lost on our roadways, then we can achieve 365 days with Zero Deaths.

To set the course toward zero deaths, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) develops and updates a statewide Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP); a living document that identifies emphasis areas and a wide variety of strategies and actions aimed at improving highway safety across the Commonwealth. The most recent SHSP update covers the years of 2025 through 2029. Kentucky's HSIP plays an important part in implementing the emphasis areas, strategies, and actions within Kentucky's SHSP.

The Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) was established in 2005 for the purpose of achieving significant reductions in fatal and serious injury crashes on all public roads. The HSIP is a federally-funded, state-administered program that is legislated under Title 23 of the United States Code, Section 148 (23 U.S.C. 148) and regulated under Title 23 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 924 (23 CRF 924). While federal law and regulations pertaining to the HSIP include many aspects, the most signficant components require each state's HSIP to be strategic, data-driven, and evidence-based.

Kentucky's Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) is one of the important documents Kentucky's HSIP uses to guide strategic, data-driven decisions. Another key document is Kentucky's HSIP Investment Plan, a living document that contains information and details about a variety of higway safety intiatives currently being funded and implemented by Kentucky's HSIP.

Kentucky's HSIP Investment Plan allocates HSIP funds into four categories: 1) Roadway Departure, 2) Intersections, 3) Vulnerable Road Users, 4) Other. These four categories represent the major crash types occurring in Kentucky. The amount of funding allocated to each category is based on the proportion of fatalities and serious injuries within each crash type category compared to the statewide total of fatalies and serious injuries. For example, approximately 56% of fatalities and serious injuries in Kentucky are the result of Roadway Departure crashes; therefore, the HSIP Investment Plan seeks to achieve a similar funding target with initiatives aimed at improving highway safety performance in the Roadway Departure category. All initiatives within the HSIP Investment Plan support highway safety improvement within at last one of the four funding categories, but some initiatives support improvement within multiple funding categories. For example, initiatives that implement improvements at intersections have the opportunity to improve safety in both the Intersections and Vulnerable Road Users categories. Also, all initiatives either directly support an Emphasis Area, a strategy, or a group of strategies within Kentucky’s SHSP. Lastly, the HSIP Investment Plan outlines, for each initiative, the background, funding category(ies) supported, methodology for project identification and implementation, benefits, and how the intiative relates to Kentucky's SHSP.