Energize for Safety Coalition launches effort to make roads safer

KINGFISHER — A recently created nonprofit aims to boost safety awareness on high-traffic roads.

More than 200 oil company representatives, elected legislators, state agency representatives, educational institution leaders and county and municipal officials met this week in Kingfisher to discuss ways to reach that goal.

The focus of the Energize for Safety Coalition's first event was to discuss traffic issues ongoing for well more than two years in Kingfisher County, an epicenter of Oklahoma's drilling and production boom in the STACK play.

Accordingly, participants were told Oklahoma is creating a Highway Safety Zone on State Highway 33 that will extend from Kingfisher's west side to nearly Watonga.

Zone identification signs will remind drivers of posted speed limits, requirements to wear seat belts and to avoid distracted driving activities.

Officials expect signs will be placed shortly after the first of the year and hinted other highway safety zones within the county could be designated in the future.

Paul Harris, director of Oklahoma's Highway Safety Office, said his office has been concerned about Kingfisher County because of climbing accident rates.

He said about 24 percent of area crashes involved commercial vehicles in 2015, while nearly 45 percent involved commercial vehicles this year. The total number of crashes doubled during that time.

"Compared to anyplace else in Oklahoma, this is where the most crashes are happening," Harris said. "It is a shared blame, I would say.

"We have changed the operating environment for the folks who live in this area, and it takes a while for a behavioral change to catch up. We also are bringing in a bunch of new drivers, and they are operating in a new environment as well. ... It has kind of been a perfect storm for this to occur."

The coalition's event covered much more than just the zone designation.

Participants also learned Oklahoma's Department of Transportation, Department of Public Safety and other state officials are eager to discuss future needs or current problems involving road safety issues anywhere in the state with any concerned drivers, businesses or interest groups.

Michael Patterson, Oklahoma's transportation secretary, said his agency desires to be proactive so that it can time its projects to support Oklahoma's continued economic growth.

"We want to make it to where we can all get in, get out and stay safe," he said.

Participants also were told about an October event the coalition held with partnering nonprofits and government agencies to help local educators better prepare their students for the driving environment.

At that event, more than 600 CareerTech students gathered at a campus to visit about traffic issues and safety, their role as drivers on the road, and how they could share those responsibilities with others.

The event featured speakers, training materials and big rigs brought to the event by Halliburton and the American Trucking Association.

Dennis Baker, Kingfisher's police chief, welcomed the coalition, saying his community went from being a sleepy little city one day to one where its main intersection, where SH 33 and U.S. 81 meet, "looked like Northwest Expressway and Meridian at noon."

"People are acclimating," Baker said, explaining he has tried to keep residents abreast of the issues as Kingfisher has worked to upgrade traffic signals and its roads.

"But there is a lot of education that has to go on within our community, our schools, with our students, children and our drivers," Baker said, noting the coalition provides "help and resources that makes a huge impact for us, here.

"Nothing but good can come from this."

The Energize for Safety Coalition is similar to an existing group in Texas' Permian Basin.

The Oklahoma coalition was founded in February by Tom Robins, a former Oklahoma deputy energy secretary who began evaluating road safety issues as activity in Oklahoma's STACK and SCOOP plays began to build.

Robins said he knew from the start he needed to involve the entire spectrum of potential concerned parties in the coalition, and brought in some of the largest oil and gas operators in Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association — Oklahoma Oil and Gas Association as co-founding board members.

A dozen other oil and gas-related companies also are involved as supporters, as are the state's transportation and public safety departments, plus the highway safety office and Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

Additionally, the Oklahoma and National Safety Councils, Our Driving Concern and Oklahoma Challenge are coalition partners.

"When we started the Energize for Safety Coalition, it was important that it wasn't just industry focused and industry led," Robins said. "We needed partners to participate that each have a piece of the safety puzzle."