State, National Highway Safety Experts Meet in Baltimore

Focus on Highway Safety as a Public Health Priority

WASHINGTON and BALTIMORE, Aug. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Next week, the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) and the Maryland Highway Safety Office are hosting approximately 450 of the nation's top highway safety, law enforcement and public health officials at the 2012 GHSA Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.

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The meeting, Public Health + Highway Safety: Saving Lives Together, takes place August 27-29 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel. General sessions and breakout workshops will explore highway safety from the public health perspective, focusing on how to apply public health successes to the field of highway safety. It will also examine how highway safety professionals can collaborate with the public health community to make highway safety a top public health priority.

Monday's keynote session features U.S. Department of Transportation Deputy Secretary John Porcari and Dr. Linda DeGutis, Director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

On Tuesday morning, attendees will hear from:

• Dr. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director, American Public Health Association
• Dr. Carolyn Cumptsy Fowler, Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• Dr. Flaura Winston, Scientific Director, Center for Injury Research and Prevention at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Noted author and commentator Tom Vanderbilt rounds out the agenda at Wednesday's closing luncheon by discussing his recent work in reducing obesity through a greater focus on pedestrian efforts.

The meeting offers a host of breakout workshops that cover the full spectrum of highway safety topics, including distracted driving, teen drivers, pedestrian safety, new technologies, traffic enforcement, and more.

A detailed meeting agenda is available at www.ghsa.org/html/meetings/annual/2012/agenda.html. News media representatives may call GHSA Communications Director Jonathan Adkins on site in Baltimore at 202-669-9746 for a media pass. General session and workshop speakers will be available to reporters following their sessions.

The meeting is supported by a variety of companies and organizations, including The Allstate Foundation, Ford Motor Company Fund, Nissan North America, Inc., State Farm™, and Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. For a full list of meeting sponsors, visit www.ghsa.org/html/meetings/annual/2012/sponsors.html.

The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) is a nonprofit association representing the highway safety offices of states, territories, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. GHSA provides leadership and representation for the states and territories to improve traffic safety, influence national policy, enhance program management and promote best practices. Its members are appointed by their Governors to administer federal and state highway safety funds and implement state highway safety plans. Contact GHSA at 202-789-0942 or visit www.ghsa.org. Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GHSAhq or follow us on Twitter @GHSAHQ.

SOURCE Governors Highway Safety Association