MDT Awards Grant Money Across the State in Effort to Reach Vision Zero

The Montana Department of Transportation awarded more than $143,000 in equipment grants for law enforcement jurisdictions to support Vision Zero, the initiative to eliminate deaths and serious injuries on Montana roads.  Supervisor Janet Kenny with the Montana Department of Transportation Highway Traffic Safety Section said grants were recently awarded to parts of the Treasure State.

The grants that we have are actually money from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and these are in support of our partnership with local law enforcement through our STEP Program which is our Selective Traffic Enforcement Program," Kenny said. "All of this is our effort to reach Vision Zero."

Vision Zero is a mission by MDT requesting every Montana driver be sober and every occupant in that vehicle to be buckled up.

Kenny said $10,338 was awarded to the Missoula Police Department and $13,000 was awarded to the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office. But Missoula wasn’t the only city to apply for the grant.

"I will just give you some examples...Butte-Silver Bow applied and was awarded, Fort Peck Tribes, the Flathead County Sheriff's Office, Bozeman, Kalispell and so forth," Kenny said. "So we have a nice representation across the state."

Kenny said a good chunk of the grants will go toward new cameras that are used by law enforcement in their vehicles for traffic enforcement.