News
A team of UGA researchers in the College of Public Health’s Department of Health Promotion and Behavior has received a $309,400 grant from the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) evaluating the effectiveness of their educational and law enforcement focused programs.
GOHS is a vital governmental agency charged with educating the public on traffic safety issues and facilitating the implementation of programs that reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities on Georgia roadways. GOHS has organized programs that are nationally known for their effectiveness, including Operation Zero Tolerance, Click It or Ticket, and the recent 100 Days of Summer Heat. GOHS’ current objectives focus on underage and adult drinking and driving prevention; programs to train judges and prosecutors; direct law enforcement; occupant protection and pedestrian safety; older driver and rural roads initiatives; motorcycle safety; and speeding/aggressive driving reduction.
The UGA evaluation team, led by co-principal investigators Carol Cotton and Stuart Fors, will provide evaluation oversight for all of GOHS 2005/2006 grants. The primary focus of the project is to systematically review and analyze grantee effectiveness and, ultimately, determine the overall effectiveness of GOHS in managing hundreds of grantees.
All of the GOHS grantees (including many law enforcement organizations) have
designed programs to save lives by reducing highway crashes and crash-related injuries in Georgia. Each program must include clearly stated objectives and evaluation criteria to measure their success. In an effort to make these programs more data-driven, GOHS has asked the UGA team to review all its grants, employing the comprehensive database developed in previous work to organize and evaluate critical data. The system created by the evaluation team includes qualitative and quantitative data and is able to answer both statistical and process questions that require the analysis of field reports.
The evaluation team will also be responsible for evaluating an innovative regional data collection initiative; providing evaluation assistance to other GOHS grantees; and implementing and evaluating surveys of Georgia driver’s knowledge of and attitudes about GOHS initiatives; and implementing and evaluating the GOHS annual statewide seat belt survey.
Cotton and Fors have extensive experience in implementing and conducting educational program evaluations. They have teamed up on nine previous highway and traffic safety cooperative agreements and grants. This is the fourth grant the researchers have received from the GOHS in the past eight years.
Cotton is known throughout the state for her work in the area of administrative license suspensions, throughout the Southeast for her work as a data contractor with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and across the nation for her co-authorship of the Safe Communities Toolkit.
Fors has an extensive list of publications and is known nationally for his study of the effectiveness of victim impact panels on reducing DUI recidivism. Although he retired in 2003 after 24 years on the UGA faculty, Fors continues to lend his expertise to ongoing projects.
Also included on the team are James Barlament, program analyst, and Kelli Magee and Allison Grimes, both research assistants. The team will produce annual comprehensive reports enabling GOHS to better meet its mandates by objectively measuring grantee effectiveness and with it, Georgia’s regionally-low crash fatalities and injuries.
UGA researchers receive grant from the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety
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GOHS is a vital governmental agency charged with educating the public on traffic safety issues and facilitating the implementation of programs that reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities on Georgia roadways. GOHS has organized programs that are nationally known for their effectiveness, including Operation Zero Tolerance, Click It or Ticket, and the recent 100 Days of Summer Heat. GOHS’ current objectives focus on underage and adult drinking and driving prevention; programs to train judges and prosecutors; direct law enforcement; occupant protection and pedestrian safety; older driver and rural roads initiatives; motorcycle safety; and speeding/aggressive driving reduction.
The UGA evaluation team, led by co-principal investigators Carol Cotton and Stuart Fors, will provide evaluation oversight for all of GOHS 2005/2006 grants. The primary focus of the project is to systematically review and analyze grantee effectiveness and, ultimately, determine the overall effectiveness of GOHS in managing hundreds of grantees.
All of the GOHS grantees (including many law enforcement organizations) have
designed programs to save lives by reducing highway crashes and crash-related injuries in Georgia. Each program must include clearly stated objectives and evaluation criteria to measure their success. In an effort to make these programs more data-driven, GOHS has asked the UGA team to review all its grants, employing the comprehensive database developed in previous work to organize and evaluate critical data. The system created by the evaluation team includes qualitative and quantitative data and is able to answer both statistical and process questions that require the analysis of field reports.
The evaluation team will also be responsible for evaluating an innovative regional data collection initiative; providing evaluation assistance to other GOHS grantees; and implementing and evaluating surveys of Georgia driver’s knowledge of and attitudes about GOHS initiatives; and implementing and evaluating the GOHS annual statewide seat belt survey.
Cotton and Fors have extensive experience in implementing and conducting educational program evaluations. They have teamed up on nine previous highway and traffic safety cooperative agreements and grants. This is the fourth grant the researchers have received from the GOHS in the past eight years.
Cotton is known throughout the state for her work in the area of administrative license suspensions, throughout the Southeast for her work as a data contractor with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and across the nation for her co-authorship of the Safe Communities Toolkit.
Fors has an extensive list of publications and is known nationally for his study of the effectiveness of victim impact panels on reducing DUI recidivism. Although he retired in 2003 after 24 years on the UGA faculty, Fors continues to lend his expertise to ongoing projects.
Also included on the team are James Barlament, program analyst, and Kelli Magee and Allison Grimes, both research assistants. The team will produce annual comprehensive reports enabling GOHS to better meet its mandates by objectively measuring grantee effectiveness and with it, Georgia’s regionally-low crash fatalities and injuries.
More Information
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Traffic Safety Research and Evaluation Group (TSREG)
325 Ramsey Center
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-6522
Phone: (706)542-2804
Fax: (706)583-0753
Email: cpcotton@uga.edu
The University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602
UGA Directory Assistance 706/542-3000
COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Paul D. Coverdell Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-7396
Phone: 706.542.0939
Fax: 706.542.6730
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