Examining Rural Traffic Safety Culture: An Appalachia Case Study 

The National Center for Rural Road Safety (Rural Safety Center) is hosting a FREE, 1.5-hour online webinar. 

Webinar Description
This webinar will feature a review of a recently completed project examining traffic safety in the Appalachian Region. Dr. Wes Kumfer will discuss unique traffic safety characteristics that exist in the Appalachian Region, link these statistics to rural road safety, and discuss potential measures to address safety concerns while highlighting bright spots in Appalachia’s traffic safety profile. Dr. Kumfer will conclude the webinar by illustrating what the safety data tell us about safety culture in the Region and point to next steps needed to understand rural traffic safety culture. 

Webinar Outcomes
At the conclusion of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Identify potential risks to rural road safety as identified in the literature.
• Characterize the traffic safety profile of the Appalachian Region using crash data.
• Describe engineering methods used to improve safety and how to evaluate those methods.
• Characterize rural road traffic safety culture using crash data.

Target Audience
This training is directed towards a very broad safety audience including, but not limited to, law enforcement, planners, engineers, first responders, elected officials, public health, tourism agencies, and safety culture experts. 

Course Presenters

Wes Kumfer, PhD, RSP1, Engineering Research Associate, UNC Highway Safety Research Center
Dr. Wes Kumfer joined HSRC in 2017 as a postdoctoral research associate with a focus on crash analysis and safety education. His primary research interest is traffic safety management through a system-oriented approach. While at HSRC, Dr. Kumfer has worked on pedestrian crash modeling, Safe Systems implementation, and engineering evaluation. He uses this experience as a member of the Road to Zero Safe System and Traffic Safety Culture working groups and as the research manager of the Collaborative Sciences Center for Road Safety.

To register for the webinar, please click on the button below.  Instructions on accessing the webinar will be sent after your registration is confirmed. 

Thank you for letting us be your “Safety Sidekick!”  We look forward to having you join us!