Washington, D.C. — The Roadway Safety Foundation (RSF) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) today recognized the New Mexico Department of Public Safety’s “Smart Roadside Inspection System” program with a National Roadway Safety Award for its efforts to make commercial vehicle enforcement more efficient and effective.
“It is a privilege to formally recognize the localities and agencies that were selected for the 2011 National Roadway Safety Awards,” said John Porcari, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation. “Each one of this year’s entries demonstrated a commitment to saving lives by improving our nation’s roadways.”
“The New Mexico Department of Public Safety (DPS) Motor Transportation Police Division is honored to receive this prestigious award for our efforts to improve the safety of our state highways,” Major Ron Cordova, of the New Mexico Motor Transportation Police, said. “This award would not have been possible without the support of our leadership at DPS and the cooperation and support from fellow state agencies including the New Mexico Taxation & Revenue Department and New Mexico Department of Transportation. Our Smart Roadside program represents an investment in leading-edge technology that leverages existing infrastructure resources to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our motor carrier safety operations. Our program is fairly new and has lots of room to grow, but we have already yielded verifiable and significant returns to our stakeholders.”
New Mexico’s Smart Roadside Inspection System Program is based on objective free-flow inspection systems and management tools. Traditional inspection is limited by a fixed number of commercial vehicle inspectors screening “unsafe looking” or randomly-selected trucks. Electronic screening is based on objective testing criteria, which helps level the playing field. Multiple roadside sensors allow automated data collection from passing vehicles without creating transportation slow-downs or stoppages, and can be deployed with existing technology.
The Federal Highway Administration and the Roadway Safety Foundation present the bi-annual National Roadway Safety Awards to programs and projects across the nation exhibiting excellence in roadway design, operations and planning.
For additional information on the New Mexico DPS Smart Roadside Inspection System program, contact Major Ron Cordova (505-476-2452), the local point of contact for the project.