By Taylor Leech

Beginning in January 2015, three groups of new candidate instructors (in Oregon City, Redmond, and White City) eagerly awaited the first day of their Traffic Safety Education (TSE) classes. For 10 weeks, the instructors-in-training attended a series of in-class, online, and behind the wheel trainings. Upon completion of their training this past March, 15 instructors emerged as Oregon Department of Transportation,Traffic Safety Division-approved driver education instructors.

Conference provides 14 hours of continuing education

Once graduates are certified, they are given 2 years to complete 15 continuing education hours before re-certification. The 2015 Pacific Northwest Driver and Traffic Safety Conference provided a perfect opportunity for these new instructors, along with other TSD-approved instructors, to gain 14 of their education hours if they attended all 3 days. Aaron East and Bonnie Morihara of The Research Institute’s Traffic Safety Education program organized the event and co-hosted it with the Oregon Department of Transportation, Transportation Safety Division. 

Nearly 300 in attendance

The conference brought 294 traffic safety educators together from all over the country, even British Columbia! Of the attendees, 55% were from in state and 45% were from out of state. Included in the event were 12 exhibits, 18 workshops (the majority of which focused on classroom education), 2 general session speakers, and 22 presenters. 

Experiencing the blind spot first hand

In partnership with UPS, one of the standout interactive workshops demonstrated the blind spots of semi-trucks. Attendees were able to climb up into the driver’s seat of the truck and witness first-hand just how significant their blind spots can be!

A creative highlight of the conference was the SWAG (stuff we all get) that were given to the attendees, including the thumb drives hidden inside small, red cars. It’s safe to say, these were all the rage among attendees!

TRI's Aaron East summarized the conference as bringing “a lot of people together for the common good of driver education instructors.” The large success of the conference did not go unnoticed as ODOT and the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association both requested that TRI play a significant role in helping plan the 60^th ADTSEA conference to be held in Portland, Oregon in summer 2016!

Learn more about the Traffic Safety Education program coordinated at TRI.

Taylor Leech is a student worker at TRI, focusing on Social Media and Web Content.

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