The Mississippi Office of Highway Safety (MOHS) develops and updates the Impaired Driving Strategic Plan (IDSP) with the help of the Mississippi Impaired Driving Task Force (IDTF) and the MOHS staff. The IDSP is a multi-year plan that is updated and revised annually, along with updates and revisions, as needed to reflect the states demographics, data analysis, activities and vision of the IDTF and MOHS.
The developed IDSP is presented to the IDTF for review, comments and for approval. Once the IDSP is approved by the IDTF, information is included in NHTSA 405(d) application, in accordance to the FAST Act. The IDSP plan is provided to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in response to the grant requirements of Title 23, Section 405(d). The following components follow and meet the NHTSA Uniform Guidelines for State Highway Safety Programs, Guideline No. 8 (Impaired Driving), to address highway safety issues, with the emphasis of impaired driving for the State of Mississippi. The IDSP is qualifying criterion for the 405(d) application as a mid-range state.
The IDTF was established by the MOHS and the Mississippi Governor’s Representative (GR) during 2013, to meet the requirements for an ID Task Force, set in the MAP-21 requirements, the IDTF continues to operate under the requirements of the FAST Act. The IDTF was established to discuss, formulate strategic plans and create strategies involving communication, data collection, resource sharing, impaired law review, high visibility enforcement ideas and other topics that are based on Highway Safety Guideline No.8. The MOHS manages the IDTF as a priority program and includes strategies and targets developed by the IDTF that will be managed and tracked for progress by the MOHS.
Coordination:
The development of the IDSP is a collaboration of all partners of the IDTF. The IDSP coordination process includes:
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- Holding collaboration meetings to share data, information on program and discussion on ID;
- Identify common factors through problem identification to find solutions;
- Determine common trends and common joint goals; and
- Create collaborative plans to combat joint highway safety issues within the State.
The MOHS has designated Rena Gaylor as the Coordinator for Impaired Driving Program.