“Culture changes through conversations.”
“About 75% of fatalities have one of four factors: the driver was impaired, the driver was driving too fast, people in the car weren’t buckled up, and distraction.”
Those quotes from Shelly Baldwin, acting director of the Washington State Traffic Safety Commission.
As summer brings increased traffic fatalities to Washington roads, the state is turning to road design, driver education reform, and new technology to reverse a post-pandemic surge in deadly crashes.
Baldwin told Inside Olympia that officials are focused on changing driver behavior while investing in structural and technological interventions. “Culture changes through conversations,” Baldwin said, pointing to the state’s Target Zero outreach network, increased media campaigns, and enforcement.
Road engineers are designing more roundabouts and narrowing lanes to naturally reduce speed. Meanwhile, Washington State Patrol is adding 21 troopers to focus on high-risk corridors, and deploying Target Zero Troopers in eight districts to augment standard enforcement.
About 75% of fatal crashes, Baldwin said, involve one or more of four factors: “The driver was impaired, the driver was driving too fast, people in the car weren’t buckled up, and distraction.”
To curb high-risk driving, the Legislature passed a law allowing judges to order speed limiter technology in the cars of repeat offenders. The state is also piloting telematics, which collects anonymized data from smartphones and vehicles to identify speeding, hard braking, and distracted driving patterns. The technology revealed that 30% of drivers are using their phones while behind the wheel.
While some hope autonomous vehicles may improve safety long-term, Baldwin noted that barriers to mass adoption remain.
She expressed disappointment that the 2025 Legislature again failed to lower the legal blood alcohol limit to 0.05, calling it “the most preventative bill we could pass.” Driver’s education is being expanded to more age groups and lower-income students. But future success may hinge on funding: “We’re 80% federally funded,” Baldwin warned, and federal uncertainty threatens program stability.
The episode also includes the broadcast premiere of the Commission’s latest public service announcement, scheduled for widescale release in July.