Photo

The city of San Ramon was awarded a $38,000 grant this summer for a new traffic collision and software database system, which will help identify patterns in traffic crashes and identifying areas in need of safety improvements to reduce crashes and deaths.

According to the 2011 annual report, San Ramon Police issued 7,051 moving violation citations (including speeding tickets) and reported 779 vehicle accidents. While the number of moving violations decreased, there were two more fatal injury accidents in 2011 then in 2012; the new software is expected to improve the ability to spot and react appropriately to collision trends.

Funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the software will be used primarily by the city's police, community development and engineering services departments. In addition to identifying collision trends, the software is expected to improve efficiency of data input and management of accident reports. Other features include:

* A graphic display of collision information to assist in spotting individual problem locations as well as corridor trends
* Ability to generate automated location-specific collision history diagrams (needed for
engineering studies, complaint investigations, and grant applications)
* Capability of providing corridor collision studies (needed for traffic signal timing,
studies, and grant applications)
* Enhanced accessibility of collision and speed survey data by city officials
* Enhanced customized reporting capabilities
* Ability to transmit collision reports to the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System
electronically

Preliminary work needed to procure and deploy the new software has already begun and should be completed in the summer of 2013.

Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.