Why Road Safety?

Folks often wonder how I found transportation. Virtually everyone I have ever worked with in the field has asked because of my clear devotion to the field. To me, it seems like the most natural thing. When I was a little girl, while my peers dreamed of being nurses and teachers, I dreamed of becoming an airplane pilot. In fourth grade when we learned how to read maps in social studies I was already a superstar, my dad had long since left me to navigate on family road trips. But I can pinpoint exactly where and when the modern incarnation of my passion for transportation was sparked. It requires a trip back in time and to the high Mojave Desert.

West of Barstow, Summer 2002

“…multi-vehicle accident shutting down northbound 15 near Baker … it was a bad one, CHP says it’ll be closed for a few hours … stay off the road if you can”

This is our second trip to Las Vegas. Rand McNally Road Atlas in hand, no alternate routes seem to put us in a better position than waiting it out. Nothing in Victorville seems inspiring. I seem to remember a mall in Barstow. We have a new plan, lunch and a stroll around the mall in Barstow.

The parking lot is full. Clearly, we aren’t the only ones who got the message of the closure. We manage to find a place to park and make for, what we now know is, the Tanger Outlets at Barstow. After grabbing food at the food court, buying a new pair of sandals and some CDs, we’ve successfully killed about two hours. In the car, before we even get out of the parking lot, we tune to the Highway Stations to determine if the accident has cleared. It has. We’re on our way!

By the time we reach Baker we see no evidence of this crash that apparently had claimed at least one life and required at least one person to be transported via helicopter to a hospital. About three hours on scene cleaned up a crash that, as I know in the present, had a cumulative cost of several million dollars—not to mention the cost of the substantial delays incurred by those waiting on the highway and waiting at the outlet mall.

Penn State, Summer 2012

Research questions I am currently attempting to answer:

What demographic factors influence the number of fatal and major injury crashes?

What effect does time to EMS and time to hospital have on the injury outcome of crashes?

It seems so funny to me that a few hours of my life, a few hours that seemed pretty ordinary to everyone else at the outlet mall, changed the course of my life. I can’t save the person or people who perished on I-15 that day, but I am motivated by the thought that maybe I can prevent a similar future crash. Inspiration lurks everywhere.

And every time I visit an outlet mall, I usually tell this story to my shopping companions, even if they’ve heard it a million times before.