State transportation officials are set to launch a comprehensive public awareness campaign to help make Vermont roads safer for bicyclists and motorcyclists.
Officials say the campaign is needed because there has been an unusually large number of fatal accidents this year.
The statistics are sobering. In the past 10 years, one bicyclist was killed in Vermont. But already in 2015, there have been four bicycle-related fatalities.
On average, roughly nine motorcyclists are killed every year and the state has already reached that number in the first eight months of this year.
Kevin Marshia is the chair of the Vermont Highway Safety Alliance, a nonprofit coalition of public and private groups.
"When we see this type of increase in fatalities and even injuries across the network it absolutely is a concern. It's something that we... within the Highway Safety Alliance partnership are really focused on: working together on ways to drive these numbers down," he says.
Marshia says the campaign has a simple but important message.
"One of the ways that we're really focused on is really finding a way for all users of our highways to understand and respect one another when they're out there. We need to, as the saying goes, 'Share the road,'" he says.
"We're really focused on... finding a way for all users of our highways to understand and respect one another when they're out there. We need to, as the saying goes, 'Share the road.'" - Kevin Marshia, Vermont Highway Safety Alliance
Marshia says his group plans to hold a rally at the Statehouse at the end of the month to kick off their public education campaign.
