POUGHKEEPSIE ... The Dutchess County Transportation Council (DCTC) has adopted a Safety Action Plan to improve transportation safety, with goals to eliminate traffic fatalities and cut serious injuries in half by 2050. The Safety Action Plan was adopted by the Council at its meeting last month.
Dutchess County Executive Sue Serino said, “Traffic safety is a top priority for Dutchess County. This plan outlines future actions for County, State, and local agencies and partners. We all have a role to play in keeping people safe on our roads. We urge our neighbors throughout Dutchess County to help us reduce fatal crashes in our community.”
Dutchess County had 114 fatal traffic crashes and 1,041 serious injury crashes between 2019-2023. To help counter these impacts, the DCTC and its consultant team used an analysis of data, a public survey, and stakeholder and public outreach to develop priority improvement locations and a toolkit of safety countermeasures. The plan is organized around the Safe System Approach, which provides a crash-prevention framework for Safer People, Safer Roads, Safer Vehicles, Safer Speeds, and Post-Crash Care.
The plan’s recommendations include strengthening transportation safety by updating key policies, supporting local speed management efforts, enhancing project selection criteria using the Safe System Approach and taking advantage of additional funding opportunities, among others. The DCTC also recommends integrating the Safety Action Plan into long-term planning to ensure that safety remains a top priority.
County Executive Sue Serino said, “This plan lays out a blueprint for road, sidewalk and other infrastructure improvements, and also addresses speeding, distracted driving, impaired driving, and other threats. As always, I thank our dedicated law-enforcement officers who work to protect our neighbors across the County. We also intend to build on our ‘EMS Matters’ campaign to ensure that crash victims receive timely medical care.”
EMS Matters is County Executive Serino’s multi-pronged initiative to ensure that emergency medical services are available when residents need them most.
As a follow-up to the Safety Action Plan, the DCTC will hold a call for projects in June to implement some of the plan’s recommendations, leveraging almost $2.5 million in federal safety funds for County and local roads. The DCTC also encourages agencies and municipalities to apply for implementation funding through the federal Safe Streets For All (SS4A) Program, which is accepting applications through May 26, 2026; the new Safety Action Plan makes it easier to apply by providing recommended projects for communities to pursue.
Throughout 2026, the DCTC will also engage local elected officials, police departments, and highway superintendents to show how they can use the plan’s tools to improve safety in their communities. This builds on the County’s efforts to improve safety, such as planned intersection projects in Dover (Cricket Hill Road) and Rhinebeck (Mt. Rutsen Road), Traffic Safety Board events such as bike rodeos, STOP-DWI enforcement campaigns, and the Watch Out For Me safety awareness campaign.
The Safety Action Plan, supporting materials, and information about its development are available at https://www.dutchessny.gov/SafetyActionPlan.
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The Dutchess County Transportation Council (DCTC) serves as the designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Dutchess County. Federal law requires that urban areas with over 50,000 people be represented by an MPO. The main mission of an MPO is to ensure that federal transportation funds are committed through a locally driven, comprehensive planning process. Since 1982, the DCTC has provided a forum for state and local government to solve transportation issues and reach consensus on federally supported transportation plans and projects in Dutchess County and across the Mid-Hudson Valley.
