2011 TZD Star Awards Winners

The Toward Zero Deaths Star Awards are given to recognize excellence in enforcement, emergency medical and trauma services, education, engineering, child passenger safety, judicial/court systems, public leadership, and the media. Award recipients have demonstrated exceptional creativity, leadership, and organizational skills and the ability to successfully motivate and collaborate with others in efforts to drive Minnesota toward zero deaths on its roads. The 2011 recipients in each category are listed below.

See previous TZD Star Awards Winners

Engineering: Mark Vizecky

The recipient of this year’s Star Award in Engineering is Mark Vizecky, program support engineer with MnDOT’s Office of State Aid for Local Transportation. Mark was instrumental in the development and implementation of the federal Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP). He also assisted MnDOT’s Office of Traffic, Safety, and Technology from start to finish in the development and implementation of the Strategic Highway Safety Plan—an essential component of HSIP. Mark also strives to empower local governments to be active participants in TZD and is the project manager for a statewide project that involves the development of individual County Roadway Safety Plans for each of Minnesota’s 87 counties.

Mark has led efforts in the development of MnCMAT, a user-friendly tool for evaluating crash data on roadways, and has made several presentations on the tool. He is involved with the TZD fatal review process development for the Minnesota Safe Communities Coalitions. And he has developed and implemented the “Retroreflectivity Action Plan” and served as project manager for the update of the Traffic Engineering Fundamentals Handbook and creation of Minnesota’s Best Practices for Traffic Sign Maintenance/Management Handbook. Mark’s passion, fueled by his desire to become an expert and trusted source of information in the field of traffic safety and engineering, has played a significant role in making Minnesota’s roadways safer.

Enforcement: Scott McConkey

The recipient of this year’s Star Award in Enforcement is Scott McConkey, formerly of the Minnesota State Patrol (MSP) and now with the DPS’s Office of Traffic Safety as a law enforcement liaison. This award recognizes Scott’s work with the MSP, where he was a true leader to not only troopers, but also officers in other departments. He coordinated multi-jurisdictional details such as Safe and Sober saturations, NightCAP saturations, and “Maroon Day” saturations, among others, coordinating with troopers as well as other agencies. Once the details started, Scott was right there enforcing the laws and practicing what he preached. He assisted local agencies with combatting underage drinking parties and organized and participated in NightCAP Jr. in the Mankato area.

For the past few years, Scott organized and participated in the Safe and Sober seat belt waves. He used his contacts to organize the five cities in his district that host stationary seat belt saturations in that two-week period. His love for traffic safety inspired officers to work hard to reach their goals.

Judicial/Court Systems: Shari Schluchter

The Honorable Shari Schluchter of the Ninth Judicial District is this year’s Star Award recipient in the category of Judicial and Court Systems. People often hesitate when asked to lead a pilot project, but there was no hesitation with Judge Schluchter. She openly embraced the request from the DPS’s Office of Traffic Safety to pilot the ignition interlock program in collaboration with the Beltrami County DWI Court to test how it should be implemented in rural Minnesota. She actively sought out DWI court participants to voluntarily have ignition interlock devices installed in their vehicles and met with DPS representatives regarding concerns and successes with the pilot project. All of the concerns were taken into consideration by the DPS, which has resulted in Minn. Statutes § 171.305 and 171.306.

In addition, as the Beltrami County DWI Court judge, she has devoted many hours to the participants of DWI Court to determine what is in their, as well as the public’s, best interest when addressing alcohol and other drug addictions.

Education: Bryan Carey

Trooper Bryan Carey, a seven-year veteran of the Minnesota State Patrol (MSP), is this year’s Star Award recipient in Education. In March of 2011, Trooper Carey created and conducted an Anti-Texting While Driving program in several Iron Range high schools. More than 1,000 high school students from seven high schools participated in this program during a one-week period.

The program created by Trooper Carey uses the MSP driving simulator to expose teen drivers first-hand to the dangers of texting while driving. Of the 1,032 teen drivers that participated in the driving simulator program, 1,002 crashed their car while texting. Afterward, all of the student participants signed a banner pledging not to text while driving. The feedback from the students and administrators was highly positive, and many other high schools in Trooper Carey’s district are waiting for their turn to host the program. The anti-texting program was a huge success because Trooper Carey brought together school administrators, student leaders, community business support, local police agencies, and the media as partners in the planning, financial support, and implementation of this teen driver education program. Local businesses donated more than $20,000 for this project.

Emergency Medical and Trauma Services: Brian Nord

This year’s Star Award recipient in Emergency Medical and Trauma Services is Brian Nord, manager of Allina Transportation Buffalo. For more than 10 years, Brian has been on the board of directors for Safe Communities of Wright County. In that time he has been active in helping to reduce the number of crashes that result in serious injuries and fatalities.

Brian is a key partner in providing speakers for the Safe Communities Parent-Teen Safe Driving presentations that reach new drivers and their parents just prior to teens receiving their driving permit. These speakers share local crash data as well as information about the risks and responsibilities of teen drivers at about 40 presentations each year, reaching nearly 3,000 individuals from the community. As the presentation program has grown, Brian has expanded his pool of EMS speakers. Initially Brian did this job on his own, but he has now recruited a pool of six trained speakers who represent the EMS field at the presentations. In addition to being active as a board member and with the parent-teen presentations, Brian has been committed to supporting the seat belt challenges that occur in the county and the mock crashes that take place each year.

Child Passenger Safety: Diana Van Wormer

In the Child Passenger Safety (CPS) category, this year’s Star Award recipient is Diana Van Wormer, a registered nurse with Regions Hospital in Stillwater. Diana is responsible for starting the child passenger safety program for Regions Hospital in the Twin Cities. In her role, she works to obtain grants for the program and the state to buy car seats for people in need. She also coordinates monthly car seat clinics at the hospital as well as at a community fire station, and she teaches a car seat class twice a year to help train new car seat techs. Diana was also involved with helping to get booster seat legislation passed in Minnesota.

One recent example of how Diana makes a difference for Minnesota children involved a group of recently arrived Burmese refugees. Diana took time to speak to the group about car seats, arranged for them to attend a car seat clinic at Regions Hospital, and procured free car seats for the attendees. She is truly an outstanding example of someone who is passionate about children and keeping them safe while riding in a vehicle.

Media Star: Trish Van Pilsum

The recipient of this year’s Media Star award is Trish Van Pilsum, investigative reporter with FOX-9 News. As an in-depth and investigative reporter, Trish has produced many memorable stories. She is best known for her work related to driving safety. Currently several of her reports, including “Room to Live” and “Kids, Cars, and Country Roads,” are part of the curriculum of drivers’ education programs throughout the country. And Trish’s compelling coverage of traffic safety issues has helped raise awareness among a broader public audience.

For her reports, she has driven a car through the ice; crawled through fire; learned to drive a school bus, semi-truck, and motorcycle; and driven a coach bus while sleep deprived. Trish has been at FOX-9 for nearly nine years. She has won numerous reporting awards including two national Edward R. Murrow Awards, two national Gracie Allen Grand Prize Awards and two dozen regional Emmy Awards.

Public Leadership: Mark Ritchie

Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and his wife lost their daughter in a crash caused by a drunk driver more than 10 years ago. After remaining private about the experience for many years, Secretary Ritchie was motivated to join the public cause against drunk driving during legislative action to solidify and strengthen Minnesota’s DWI ignition interlock pilot program. The action was successful, and Governor Pawlenty signed the bill into law in 2009. Since that time, Secretary Ritchie has agreed to tell his family’s story at public events such as the MADD awards banquet, the DPS’s Office of Traffic Safety Safe and Sober awards luncheon, and the Ramsey County Traffic Safety Initiative’s awards banquet. His words have motivated officers and the public to continue the fight against drunk driving, and his diligent work behind the scenes to encourage legislators to vote for the ignition interlock bill was a driving force in it ultimately being signed into law. As a distinguished public leader, Minnesota’s traffic safety advocates are fortunate to have Secretary Ritchie on their team.

Public Leadership: Michael Campion

Former Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Campion was appointed commissioner in April 2004 and served in that capacity until early 2011. Campion started at the department’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in 1973 and rose through the ranks to be superintendent in 2000. During his tenure at the DPS, traffic safety—and laws relating to it—were clearly high priorities. Due in part to his leadership and advocacy, the Minnesota legislatures passed, and the governor signed, a reduction to the illegal per se alcohol limit to 0.08, stronger teen graduated driver’s license laws, a ban on texting and e-mailing for all drivers, a booster seat law, a primary seat belt law, and improved sanctions for DWI offenders, including ignition interlock. Without the commissioner’s persuasion, the governor would have been unlikely to sign all of this legislation and the department staff would have been unable to work toward its passage. The commissioner’s legacy to Minnesota is fewer people killed or seriously injured on our roadways. His contributions toward zero deaths cannot be overestimated.

 

Photos by David Gonzalez, MnDOT