Annual CDOT traffic safety summit draws 400 attendees to Antlers Hotel in Colorado Springs

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - A two-day gathering of experts downtown began Monday morning and ends Tuesday evening with a goal of raising public awareness of highway safety and discussing methods to decrease crashes, injuries and deaths.

The Colorado Department of Transportation's (CDOT) third-annual Traffic Safety Summit is being held at the Antlers Hotel.

It comes at a time when the agency reveals that overall highway traffic deaths declined 6% last year and 12% so far this year, but the number of deaths to people walking or riding bicycles last year increased to 136 and 20 -- both record highs.

The Colorado Springs area experienced that overnight a week ago when Oscar De La Torre Robles, 23, was killed after being hit by two vehicles while crossing southbound lanes of Interstate 25 between South Academy Boulevard and Mesa Ridge Parkway.

According to the Colorado State Patrol, Robles was crossing from east to west, and troopers believe he was intoxicated; neither driver will be cited or charged.

It raises the question of why more pedestrians and cyclists are dying on highways when they're generally prohibited from being there.

"A lot of the pedestrians we come in contact with, are individuals that are homeless, and they need help and information," said Maj. Brian Lyons, of the Colorado State Patrol. "So, that's what we're seeing -- and that's the other part of that, is we're having those discussions about who we can partner with to provide them with the needs that they have, to keep them off the roadways."

A cross-section of experts in law enforcement, engineering, community planning, education, advocacy, emergency response and public health are participating in the summit; they come from local agencies, the Rocky Mountain region and around the country.

The summit seeks to not only raise public awareness of highway safety but to discuss ways that professionals can make highways safer.

Ana Lucaci, of Longmont, is among the summit attendees; she became a public health educator for pedestrian safety after being hit by a distracted pickup truck driver in a Denver crosswalk in 2015.

"What saved my life from a serious injury is that I was carrying my laptop bag on my right shoulder, and that's where the pickup truck hit me, where the laptop was protecting my hip," she recalled. "Otherwise, I would have had long-lasting injuries. I've developed a course in which people can how to drive around pedestrians because we don't really teach that."

On a related note, Robles' death is the 32nd traffic fatality in Colorado Springs so far this year, on highways or on city streets; that's seven more than at the same time last year.

On Monday, state troopers also started their two-week "Click It or Ticket" campaign of increased seat belt enforcement; more than 1,700 drivers received citations during the previous campaign in May.

Lyons said that reducing the current shortage of troopers will also help keep highways safer.

"We're short 86 troopers," he said. "I'm hoping that a year from now, we'll have those positions filled by our academy classes."

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