PennDOT announces 2021 statewide traffic fatality totals | News, Sports, Jobs



HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation reports that in 2021, statewide traffic deaths increased to 1,230 from 1,129 the previous year.

Pennsylvania roadway deaths were up about 9%, in line with a recently released report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, projecting a national increase of approximately 12% in the first nine months of 2021.

“Safety on our roadways is a shared responsibility,” PennDOT Secretary Yassmin Gramian said. “Whether you are a driver, passenger, pedestrian, or bicyclist, we can all do our part to prevent crashes and fatalities. Buckle up every time you are in a vehicle. Always cross the road at an intersection or crosswalk. Always wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle or bicycle. Never drive, ride, or walk impaired or distracted. Let’s work together to reduce traffic deaths, because even one fatality is one too many.”

Pennsylvania’s updated 2022 Strategic Highway Safety Plan sets the groundwork for progressing “Toward Zero Deaths” by focusing on both infrastructure-based strategies and behavior change to reduce the frequency and severity of crashes. This is done by implementing roadway designs that emphasize minimizing the risk of injury to all road users, reducing inequities in our transportation network, and using cost-effective, data-driven methods.

The plan seeks to substantially reduce traffic related fatalities and serious injuries by addressing several safety focus areas, including three priority emphasis areas: lane departure crashes, impaired driving, and pedestrian safety.

In 2021, fatalities in crashes involving lane departure increased to 596, up from 551 in 2020, accounting for nearly half of highway fatalities across the state. Strategies to combat these crashes are aimed at keeping vehicles on the roadway, within the proper lanes of travel, and include low-cost safety improvements such as centerline or shoulder rumble strips, high friction surface treatments and cable median barrier.

Speeding, impaired, and distracted driving are leading factors in lane departure crashes.

Fatalities in crashes involving impaired driving decreased from 471 in 2020 to 450 in 2021, but still account for more than 35% of fatalities.

Pedestrian fatalities increased to 182, up from 146 in 2020.

Other crash types with notable increases in fatalities in 2021 include:

• Crashes involving a 16 to 17-year-old driver

• Crashes involving aggressive driving

• Motorcyclist fatalities

• Crashes involving heavy trucks

• Unrestrained fatalities

According to national data, driver behavior is a factor in more than 90% of crashes.

For more information on reportable crash data, visit PennDOT’s Pennsylvania Crash Information Tool website, www.crashinfo.penndot.gov.

For more information on the department’s highway safety initiatives, visit www.penndot.pa.gov/safety.




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Virginia hit 14-year high for traffic fatalities in 2021


Virginia reached a sobering milestone in 2021: Crash fatalities in the Commonwealth hit a 14-year high, according to data released Tuesday.

Virginia reached a sobering milestone in 2021: Crash fatalities in the commonwealth hit a 14-year high, according to data released Tuesday.

In 2021, 968 people died in crashes on Virginia roads. That’s up 14.3% from 2020, when there were 847 crash fatalities. And it’s the highest number of annual deaths since 2007, which saw 1,026 fatalities.



Statistics from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles Highway Safety Office show that fatalities were up across a number of categories: speed-related deaths; commercial motor vehicle-involved fatalities; and fatalities of motorcyclists, pedestrians, bicyclists, teen drivers and mature drivers.

Courtesy Virginia DMV (Click to enlarge)

“There are immediate, simple actions Virginians can take to save lives on our roadways,” said acting DMV Commissioner Linda Ford, the governor’s highway safety representative, in a statement.

“This is critically important as fatalities continue to increase this year. Vehicles and roadways are safer than they ever have been, yet we continue to lose lives to senseless crashes. Do your part to help. Slow down, buckle up, focus on the task of driving and never drive impaired. It truly is that simple.”

2022 isn’t looking great, either. So far, the DMV says 245 people have been killed in crashes on Virginia roadways, a 12% increase compared with this point in 2021.

2021 was a bad year for the District as well. The Washington Post reported back in February that with 40 fatalities, it was the deadliest year in the District since 2007.

Maryland recently released its crash statistics. In 2021, there were 557 roadway fatalities in Maryland. While that number is down 2.8% from 2020, state officials say it is still not good news.

“Tragically, we lost 377 drivers, 80 passengers, 129 pedestrians and bicyclists,” said James F. Ports Jr., the secretary of Maryland’s Transportation Department.

“These are not just numbers. These are not just statistics. They are people. They’re our family members, our friends, our community members.”

This year, there have already been 134 roadway fatalities in Maryland.

Virginia isn’t the only locality seeing an increase in crash deaths: It’s a national trend.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “an estimated 31,720 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes from January through September 2021, an increase of approximately 12% from the 28,325 fatalities projected for the first nine months of 2020.”

“The projection is the highest number of fatalities during the first nine months of any year since 2006 and the highest percentage increase during the first nine months in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System’s history.”

Ford warned that the upward trend will continue unless Virginia drivers “take action.”

“Most people want to contribute to something greater; by driving safely, you can truly make a difference, not just in your life, but in the lives of everyone with whom you share the road,” Ford said.

WTOP’s Michelle Murillo contributed to this report.



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Estonians embarked on foreign travel again in 2021 – Baltic News Network


In a sign of Baltic travel recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic and its restrictions, Estonians made 575 000 international trips in 2021, which was 3% more than the year before, official statistics showed.

Statistics Estonia wrote in a press release on Tuesday, March 29, that the number of overnight domestic trips was close to 2.3 million – this is 6% more than in 2020. Last year, the expenditures on outbound trips amounted to over 495 million euros and the expenditures on domestic trips to more than 402 million euros.

Read also: Tallinn petition against Russian singer’s concert draws 5 000 signatures

With the increase in the number of trips, the total expenditures on trips grew by 98 million euros. However, compared to the pre-pandemic year 2019, Estonian residents spent nearly 980 million euros less on travel.

Epp Remmelg, analyst at Statistics Estonia, commented that travelling among Estonians increased at the end of the second quarter of 2021, but outbound trips made last year still totalled only a third of the number of outbound trips made in 2019. «The number of outbound overnight trips grew the most in the fourth quarter – by four and a half times compared to the fourth quarter of 2020,» noted Remmelg, according to the press release.



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Suit Alleges Racial Profiling in 2021 Louisiana Traffic Stop | Louisiana News


By KEVIN McGILL, Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Two Black men claim in a new federal lawsuit that they were subjected to an illegal, racially motivated and humiliating traffic stop and search last year by deputies in Louisiana‘s St. Tammany Parish.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana announced the suit Thursday as part of its ongoing Justice Lab initiative. The project recruits private lawyers and firms to aid in litigation targeting allegations of racially motivated police abuses.

Centering on a March 13, 2021, stop in Mandeville, the lawsuit says Bruce Washington, 53, of Bogalusa, was taking his cousin, Gregory Lane, 47, of Mandeville, to get a haircut when he stopped at a Mandeville gas station. It claims two deputies began monitoring their movements without cause. As Washington drove away, deputies followed them and pulled them over before being joined by a third deputy. The suit says one deputy claimed, incorrectly according to the suit, that Washington had failed to use his turn signal.

The sheriff’s office declined comment on pending litigation Friday.

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The suit says the two were questioned and patted down. Lane’s request to call his wife so she could call a lawyer was refused. Washington was told, after saying he knew his legal rights, that the traffic stop could “go a different way than it has to be,” which Washington perceived as a threat, the lawsuit said.

The suit adds that the men ran into administrative hurdles, and at times hostility from sheriff’s office workers, as they tried to file a complaint against the deputies.

The suit seeks unspecified damages from Sheriff Randy Smith, the three deputies and multiple unidentified sheriff’s office workers. It says Washington and Lane were victims of “internalized racial stereotyping of delinquency and dangerousness rooted in the history of criminalization of Black people in Louisiana.”

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



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Spring Travel Numbers ‘Significantly Up’ At Tulsa International Compared To 2021


Spring Break is coming to an end and more families are expected to travel home this weekend.

The busy time for the Tulsa International Airport is early in the morning until about 10 am and airport officials are still recommending people get here two hours before their flight because of the increase in traffic.

Along with the increase in people traveling this week at the airport, AAA says it’s also seeing an increase in drivers out on the roads this month. They say more people are eager to travel after not traveling for the past couple of years because of the pandemic.

Andrew Pierini with Tulsa International Airport says they’re seeing promising numbers when it comes to the increase in travelers.

“We’ve seen travel significantly increase from last year. We’re about 35 percent compared to 2021 spring break. And compared to 2019 pre-pandemic we’re about 85 to 90 percent. So still not quite back to pre-pandemic levels but compared to last year, significantly up.” says Andrew Pierini with TIA

He says they’re hoping this increase in air travel continues throughout the summer months.



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EU Sees Significant Tourism Recovery in 2021


As COVID-19 conditions around the world continue to fluctuate unpredictably, tourism is still the sector facing the most challenges in terms of achieving full recovery from the effects of the pandemic. Nonetheless, there are significant signs of progress emerging at this stage.

Eurostat, the European Union’s (E.U.) statistics office, today published some of its findings taken from early tourism estimates from last year. They revealed that tourism in the E.U. during 2021 improved overall (in terms of the number of nights people spent in short-stay accommodations), the figures still fell short of those from pre-pandemic years.

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During December 2021, the number of nights tourists spent in E.U. short-stay accommodations grew by 237 percent to 102.2 million—more than tripling the number of nights recorded in the same month of 2020. But, when Eurostat held the 2021 figures up against those from 2019, they still fell short by 27 percent.

Results for the entire year showed the number of nights tourists spent in E.U. short-stay accommodations reached 1.8 billion, representing a 27 percent rise over the previous year and reaching two-thirds of 2019’s pre-pandemic levels.

The full-year numbers for 2021 showed notable improvement over 2020 when looking at the E.U.’s as a whole, with 21 out of 24 member states registering positive trends over the year prior. At the E.U.-wide level, the bloc performed at around 63 percent of 2019’s pre-COVID levels last year.

Heavily tourism-focused countries that adopted less severe entry restrictions (and did so for shorter durations), led the rebound, with Spain, Greece and Croatia each up by more than 70 percent over 2020.

Only Austria, Latvia and Slovakia saw the number of tourist accommodations nights in 2021 decline even further than they did the previous year, falling more than 18 percent past their 2020 levels.

The agency found that Latvia, Slovakia, Malta and Hungary were the nations that were most affected by the pandemic n 2021, with their numbers coming in at less than 50 percent of what they’d been in 2019. Denmark and the Netherlands, on the other hand, lost out by less than 20 percent of 2019 levels.

According to U.S. News & World Report, domestic tourists in their respective E.U. member states represented 68 percent of the nights spent in short-stay accommodations, while visitors from other nations within the E.U. accounted for 24 percent. Five percent of the remaining portion came from other European countries outside the bloc, and the rest of the world contributed only three percent.





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IAG Posts 2021 Loss, Expects Profitability in Q2 2022


International Consolidated Airlines Group, the parent
company of British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Level and Vueling, forecasts
that it will return to profitability from the second quarter on for this year,
despite the Covid-19 omicron variant having a negative short-term effect on the
second half of the fourth quarter of 2021 and on the first quarter of 2022, according
to the company’s earnings results released Friday.

IAG reported a fourth-quarter loss of €278 million, and a
full-year 2021 loss of €2.8 billion, versus a €7.5 billion loss in 2020. Quarterly
passenger revenue was €2.7 billion. Full-year passenger revenue was €5.8
billion, up 5.9 percent from 2020.

“Business travel has started to recover, especially on
the transatlantic routes,” IAG CEO Luis Gallego said in a statement.
“Prior to omicron, long-haul traffic had seen the highest booking activity
in October and November at over 80 percent of 2019 levels.”

IAG passenger capacity for the quarter was 58 percent of
2019 capacity, up from 43 percent in the third quarter. Full-year 2021 capacity
was 36 percent of 2019 levels. Current passenger capacity plans for 2022 are 65
percent for the first quarter and 85 percent by year-end compared with 2019
levels. The company anticipates delivery of 25 new aircraft in 2022.

Looked at by carrier, Vueling led capacity for the fourth
quarter at 79 percent of Q4 2019 levels, followed by Iberia at 75 percent.
British Airways ended the fourth quarter at 53 percent of 2019 capacity, while
Aer Lingus was at 44 percent and Level was at 11 percent.

The company’s North American capacity was “severely
limited” by the U.S. government’s Covid-19 travel restrictions, which were
lifted for European Union and United Kingdom citizens on Nov. 8, 2021. Prior to
that easing, flights operated mostly for cargo purposes. Passenger load factor
for the region was down 34.7 points versus 2019 to 49.4 percent, reflecting the
U.S. government restrictions for most of the year.

RELATED: IAG
Q3 2021 earnings



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Aya Healthcare Announces 2021 Future Travel Nurse Scholarship Winners | News


SAN DIEGO, Feb. 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Aya Healthcare, the largest healthcare staffing company in the US, is proud to announce that ten winners have been selected in their fourth annual 2021 Future Travel Nurse Scholarship program.

Each aspiring nurse will receive a $1,000 scholarship to help with costs associated with their nursing program. Aya’s selection committee is comprised of nurse leaders with extensive healthcare experience. They reviewed hundreds of submissions from across the country and ranked applicants on their academic qualifications, extracurricular activities, volunteer work and personal essays.

The recipients for the 2021 Future Travel Nurse Scholarship program are:

  1. Virginia BrittMedical University of South Carolina
  2. Michalina KoronkowskiMarquette University
  3. Hana M Roushdy – Arizona State University
  4. Emily MartinBluefield State College
  5. Natalie GulleyIndiana University
  6. Kaley HoffmanUniversity of Houston
  7. EliAnna Bermudez – Messiah University
  8. Anna LeviBergen Community College
  9. Karoline GajewskiUniversity of Tampa
  10. Angela WestmorelandWestern Governors University

“Nurses are the backbone of our nation’s healthcare infrastructure,” said April Hansen, RN, MSN, group president of workforce solutions at Aya Healthcare. “Now, more than ever, we need to invest in our nursing workforce, ensuring the pipeline of talent is robust and thriving. When we support our nurses, we improve the overall health and care of our nation.”

The Aya Healthcare Future Nurse Scholarship program is open to eligible nursing students accepted or already enrolled at an accredited institution. For details regarding the scholarship, visit https://www.ayahealthcare.com/travel-nursing/future-travel-nurse-scholarship.

About Aya Healthcare

Aya Healthcare is a data-driven market leader in healthcare staffing. Through its transformative use of technology and digital engagement, Aya has become the largest healthcare staffing company in the United States. Aya’s managed marketplace hosts the largest pool of active job seekers with algorithm-driven personalized touchpoints to drive further engagement and adds transparency and unrivaled efficiency to healthcare systems. While technology drives efficiency and scale, Aya employees power the company to deliver unparalleled accountability and exceptional experiences for clients and clinicians. Aya’s company culture is rooted in giving back and supports organizations around food security, education, healthcare, safe shelter and equity. To learn more about Aya Healthcare, visit www.ayahealthcare.com.

Media Contact:

Rebecca Kelley

Public Relations Manager

Aya Healthcare

Rebecca.Kelley@ayahealthcare.com

619.384.5269

Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aya-healthcare-announces-2021-future-travel-nurse-scholarship-winners-301484748.html

SOURCE Aya Healthcare





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