NSC Announces 2025 Road to Zero Community Traffic Safety Grant Recipients

Grants support innovative projects to eliminate roadway deaths

WASHINGTON, May 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Safety Council announced the 2025 recipients of the Road to Zero Community Traffic Safety Grants, funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to support initiatives working to eliminate preventable traffic deaths.

The grants are awarded annually to programs, projects and research making meaningful progress toward zero roadway fatalities. NHTSA projects that 39,345 people died in traffic crashes in 2024. This represents a decrease of about 3.8% compared to the 40,901 fatalities reported in 2023 and marks the first time since 2020 that the number of fatalities fell below 40,000. Despite this improvement, the numbers still indicate an ongoing safety crisis on our nation's roads.

"We must work together to address this persistent public health crisis," said Mark Chung, executive vice president of safety leadership and advocacy at NSC. "These grants empower local initiatives essential to creating safer roads for all – pedestrians, cyclists, drivers and passengers alike. With NHTSA's support, NSC is proud to champion organizations making a lasting impact in communities nationwide."

The 2025 grantees include:

• Mobridge Regional Hospital & Clinics, "Improving GIS Mapping Tools to Reduce Post-Crash Response Times in Rural South Dakota"
• Wayne State University, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, "Bridging the Urban-Suburban Safety Gap: A Data-Driven Approach to Pedestrian Safety on Overlooked Suburban-Type Arterials in Detroit"
• University of Texas at San Antonio, "A Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (Geo-AI) Tool for Proactive Crash Prevention"
• Colorado Whole Blood Coalition, "West Metro Fire Rescue Prehospital Whole Blood Program"
• Regents of the University of Michigan, "Exploring Vehicle Technologies to Address Pedestrian Injuries: Focusing on SUVs and Pickup Trucks"
• John Hopkins University, "Enhancing Safety and Injury Prevention in Highly Automated Vehicles Through Digital Twin Technology and AI-Driven Design"

The grants are awarded through the nation's largest traffic safety coalition, the Road to Zero Coalition, an NSC-managed program created in a collaborative effort with the U.S. Department of Transportation. Road to Zero focuses on preventing roadway deaths through its key pillars of doubling down on what works with evidence-based strategies, advancing new technologies, and promoting a culture of safety through a Safe System Approach. The USDOT National Highway Traffic Safety Administration renewed funding for Road to Zero through September 2026 last fall.

The 2025 cohort was the most competitive since the grants were first awarded in 2017, with over 170 applicants for funding. Applications for next year's grants open in fall 2025. Find more information about funding, previous recipients, eligibility requirements and how to apply at nsc.org/RTZgrants. To learn more about Road to Zero or become a member for free, visit nsc.org/roadtozero.

About the National Safety Council
The National Safety Council is America's leading nonprofit safety advocate – and has been for over 110 years. As a mission-based organization, we work to eliminate the leading causes of preventable death and injury, focusing our efforts on the workplace and roadways. We create a culture of safety to not only keep people safer at work, but also beyond the workplace so they can live their fullest lives.

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SOURCE National Safety Council