The Century Council exhibited at the Governors Highway Safety Association annual conference in San Diego, California, this week. GHSA’s 2013 Annual Meeting tackled the issue of how new technologies presents both challenges and opportunities for the highway safety community.

While at the conference, we talked with highway safety practitioners about our program offerings and how those professionals can use our programs in their respective states. Attendees also had opportunities to view our hardcore drunk driving and college binge drinking materials in addition to the latest from our Ask, Listen, Learn and IKnowEverything programs.

The GHSA also presented its 2013 highway safety awards to two individuals, who, according to a GHSA press release, “collectively have dedicated nearly seventy years to addressing behavioral safety issues,” and five programs focusing on the nation’s most pressing roadway safety problems.

The James J. Howard Highway Safety Trailblazer Award, the GHSA’s most prestigious honor, was awarded to Dr. James “Jim” Hedlund. Terry Pence, traffic safety section director for the Texas Department of Transportation’s traffic operations division, received the GHSA’s Kathryn J. R. Swanson Public Service Award. Both Dr. Hedlund and Mr. Pence’s work on important road-safety issues, including the national issue of impaired driving, has made a tremendous impact on not only the traffic safety community, but also the whole of our nation’s roadways.

In addition to the two individual achievement awards, five programs from across the country were presented with the GHSA’s Peter K. O’Rourke Special Achievement Award for outstanding highway safety accomplishments during the previous calendar year. More information about these award-winning and lifesaving programs can be found here.

We applaud and congratulate all of the respective award recipients on their hard work, and we are grateful for the dedication that all highway safety practitioners continue to show toward these important issues.