Delaware’s Department of Transportation (DelDOT) has unveiled its latest Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP).
Federal legislation requires each state to develop a comprehensive safety plan every four years.
So DelDOT teamed up with several other agencies over the past year to create the 2021-2025 version of Delaware’s plan to address the issues that lead to highway deaths and injuries.
“Really what we’re trying to do is enhance safety on our roadways," said DelDOT’s director of community relations C. R. McLeod. "We continue to see far too many serious injuries and fatalities on Delaware roads. And this is really a roadmap for us to take measures and take steps to help address that issue and hopefully reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries we’re seeing on Delaware roads.”
McLeod says this latest plan has a specific focus.
Our emphasis areas this year are really focused on where we’re seeing the most serious crashes occurring," said McLeod. "So intersections for one - those side-impact crashes are where we see the most serious injuries and fatalities occurring. So how do we make intersections safer? Also distracted driving continues to be a very serious issue.”
DelDOT lists Route 1 at Cave Neck Road in Milton and Mill Creek Road at Brackenville Road in Hockessin as two of the most dangerous intersections in Delaware.
McLeod adds that distracted driving and speeding are the top causes of accidents.
He notes that 2015 and 2019 remain the two years with the highest number of fatalities during the most recent 10-year period; 133 fatalities were reported for each of those years.
He says this latest plan’s goal is to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries by 15% over the next five years and at least 50% by 2035.
DelDOT, Delaware State Police and the Office of Highway Safety (OHS) will hold a virtual public workshop this Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 6 p.m.to lay out the new plan.
The plan is available for review online.
