A first of its kind safe driving campaign was unveiled in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area this week. The "Drive Safe Cedar Valley" campaign is designed to be an aggressive public awareness campaign aimed at changing the way area residents drive. the program is funded in part by a 50-thousand dollar grant from the Iowa Department of Transportation and is managed by the City of Waterloo Traffic Operations Department, where Sandi Greco is superintendent.
Greco say the campaign will utilize education-based programs, keynote spokespeople, and special events to focus on traffic safety basics that may have been overlooked or forgotten.
Greco says the grant will get the program rolling. She says they wrote a unique request to support the campaign, as "we want to stop accidents before they happen. Waterloo fire-rescue paramedic Shane Schellhorn will be the first of several spokespeople for the campaign.
Schellhorn says more than one-thousand intersections in the Cedar Valley have been recognized by the D-O-T for a history of traffic related accidents and fatalities due to unsafe driving habits. There are more than 750 intersections in Waterloo that are candidates for redevelopment due to their dangerous nature, and of those 24 are among the top ranked in the state for incidents that cause property damage, injuries and fatalities. The new campaign was launched at the intersection of one of the most dangerous intersections in Waterloo.