BOISE, Idaho — The newly implemented Traffic Fatality Review Task Force held its first meeting on Thursday, Oct. 5 at Boise City Hall.
The Treasure Valley has seen a historically high year for crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists. The Traffic Fatality Review Task Force was formed to address this problem.
Three agencies came together to create this task force: the City of Boise, the Ada County Highway District and the Boise Police Department.
The main objective of the task force is to bring together various agencies' resources and knowledge to fully understand the challenges at specific intersections or roads. Then to find solutions to improve the infrastructure, policies and enforcement to better protect pedestrians and cyclists.
During the meeting, the three groups talked about what efforts each agency has made to improve traffic safety and how they all can work together to help prevent any more fatalities.
Boise City Council president and founder of the Boise Bicycle Project, Jimmy Hallyburton said there have been six pedestrians and cyclists killed in car crashes in Ada County this year.
ACHD mentioned they have reduced the speed limit in certain areas and added traffic calming features to the roads like speed bumps or humps in certain neighborhoods.
The City of Boise mentioned a task force they created two years ago to reduce bicycle and pedestrian deaths and serious injuries named Vision Zero.
"When we're designing our roads in the first place, you know, we're here at the city, making land use decisions, Ada County Highway Department is making decisions about the street, we need to be making those decisions together,” said Hallyburton. “So, we're designing roads, designing communities, designing the way housing works that really prioritize pedestrian, bicycle safety, and just the safety for all of our different types of road users."
The task force will meet every three months and will also meet immediately after a fatal pedestrian or cyclist cast or an accident that causes serious injury.
This meeting was open to the public but future meetings will be closed because of the sensitive information that will be talked about when it comes to investigations of the crash the task force will review.
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