Traffic Safety
Who do you call? You’ve noticed a dangerous traffic situation in your community; maybe it’s a hazardous intersection or a stretch of highway with lots of speeders. Everyone in Wisconsin has a remarkable team of experts they can turn to for help - their county Traffic Safety Commission (TSC). The purpose of a TSC is to monitor local traffic safety issues and coordinate efforts to address problems.
In 1971, Governor Patrick Lucey signed into law Statute 83.013 which requires each county to have a community-level, multi-disciplinary Traffic Safety Commission. Since then, Wisconsin has been the envy of other states for our grassroots approach to traffic safety. Some states have laws that allow - but do not require - cities or counties to establish similar groups; Iowa, for example, has only a handful of them.
Who we are:
A commission is required to include the county’s:
· Chief traffic law enforcement officer (or designated representative)
· Highway safety coordinator (if there is one)
· Highway commissioner (or designated representative)
and from Wisconsin DOT:
· An engineer from the regional office
· Regional Program Manager (RPM) from the DOT Bureau of Transportation Safety (BOTS)
· State Patrol trooper/inspector
along with representatives from:
· Education (e.g. driver ed instructor, high school principal)
· Medicine (e.g. doctor, nurse, EMS provider)
· Law (e.g. DA’s office, municipal prosecutor)
Additional members might include county highway committee members, town board supervisors, civic leaders, safety advocates and the local news media.
What we do:
Commissions must meet at least quarterly and state law specifies these duties:
· Review local crash data and other traffic safety-related matters.
· Prepare “spot maps” showing crash locations on county and town roads and on city/village streets of places under 5,000 population.
· For municipalities of 5,000 or more, spot maps aren’t required but the TSC must look at the crash data.
Based on their review of this data and reports of citizens’ concerns, TSCs can recommend corrective action to DOT, the county board or highway committee, or any other appropriate branch of government. Recommending to government and responding to citizens often takes some gumption. As Jefferson County TSC coordinator Joe Nehmer says, “We tell them what we think, not necessarily what they want to hear.”
DOT provides commissions with crash and citation data for rural state and county highways, and the BOTS RPM provides legislative updates and information on traffic safety initiatives and grant funding opportunities.
TSCs can also:
· Ask the State Patrol or local law enforcement to increase patrols in problem areas.
· Ask DOT to review possible engineering problems on a state highway, and advise DOT on planned work zones or detour routes.
· Review proposals for local traffic safety improvements.
· Review fatal or other high-profile crashes. This can be done, for example, via in-squad video or by piling into a bus for a site visit.
· Foster public awareness of traffic safety issues and initiatives (e.g. by working with local news media).
· Encourage/sponsor local activities (e.g. bike rodeos, Safe Routes to School campaigns).
(Source “Wisconsin Highway Traffic Safety Coordinators Association”, May, 2008)
2008-2009 Commission Members
· Bryan F. Vergin - Chairperson
1329 Ridgeway Drive
Phillips, WI 54555
(715) 339-3424
· Patti Nelles, Regional Program Manager - Wisconsin DOT Representative
WisDOT Bureau of Transportation Safety
1681 Second Avenue South
P.O. Box 8201
Wisconsin Rapids, WI 54495-8021
(715) 421-7368
· Chris Droes, P.E. - Wisconsin DOT Representative
WI DOT - District 7
P.O. Box 777
Rhinelander, WI 54501
(715) 365-5749
· Commissioner William Knaack - Price County Highway Department Representative
Price County Highway Department
704 N. Lake Avenue
Phillips, WI 54555
(715) 339-3081
· George Molnar, Patrol Superintendent - Price County Highway Department Representative
Price County Highway Department
704 N. Lake Avenue
Phillips, WI 54555
(715) 339-3081
· Sheriff Brian S. Schmidt - Law Enforcement Representative
Price County Sheriff’s Department
164 Cherry Street
P.O. Box B
Phillips, WI 54555
(715) 339-3011
· Brian A Roush - Law Enforcement Representative
Price County Sheriff’s Department
164 Cherry Street
P.O. Box B
Phillips, WI 54555
· Captain Jeff Frenette - Law Enforcement Representative
Wisconsin State Patrol - District 4
2805 Martin Avenue
P.O. Box 5157
Wausau, WI 54401-7172
(715) 845-1143
· Chief Scott Straetz - Law Enforcement Representative
Park Falls Police Department
400 S. 4th Avenue
P.O. Box 146
Park Falls, WI 54552
(715) 762-2446
· Chief David Sonntag - Law Enforcement Representative
Phillips Police Department
174 S. Eyder Avenue
Phillips, WI 54555
(715) 339-3847
· Matt Sherrell - Forest Service Representative
United States Department of Agriculture
1170 S. 4th Avenue
Park Falls, WI 54552
(715) 762-5124
· Gay Palecek - Education Representative
Park Falls School District
350 River Road
Park Falls, WI 54552
(715) 762-3281
· Open - Education Representative
Phillips School District
990 Flambeau Avenue
Phillips, WI 54555
(715) 339-3644
· Greg Krause - Education Representative
Prentice School District
1025 Town Street
Prentice, WI 54556
(715) 428-2811
· Tracy Ellis, RN, BAN - Medicine Representative
Price County Health Department
104 S. Eyder Avenue
Phillips, WI 54555
(715) 339-3054
· Attorney Bruce Marshall - Law Representative
Slaby, Deda, Marshall & Reinhard, LLP
215 N. Lake Avenue
P.O. Box 7
Phillips, WI 54555
(715) 339-2196
· Gertrude Wappel - Women’s Highway Safety Leader Representative
N8690 Snowshoe Drive
Phillips, WI 54555
(715) 339-2075
· Bob Kopisch, County Board Chairman - Price County Board of Supervisors Representative
Price County
N16165 Lakeshore Drive
Butternut, WI 54514
(715) 762-4301
· Eugene Schneider, Supervisor - Price County Board of Supervisors Representative
Price County
180 S. 9th Street
Park Falls, WI 54552
(715) 339-3429