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Saturday, March 27th from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.

FORT COLLINS—On Saturday, Congresswoman Betsy Markey will host a Distracted Driving Summit at the Lory Student Center on the Colorado State University campus in Ft. Collins.

The Summit will being together local and national leaders in transportation safety to discuss putting an end to distracted driving.

WHERE:

Cherokee Ballroom

Lory Student Center

Colorado State University

Fort Collins, Colorado

WHO:

U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey

House Transportation Committee Chairman James Oberstar

Dave Teater, National Safety Council

Shelley Forney, FocusDriven

David Strickland, National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator

According to a recent National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey, 80 percent of all traffic incidents and 65 percent of all near-crashes involve some type of distraction. Driver distraction was reported to have been involved in 16 percent of all fatal crashes in 2008, a 12 percent increase since 2004.

In 2008, 9-year-old Erica Forney of Fort Collins, Colorado was struck and killed by a distracted driver while riding her bicycle home from Coyote Ridge Elementary school.

“Having experienced this tragedy in my own community, this is an issue of particular importance to me,” said Rep. Markey, “When any of us get behind the wheel of a car, driving safely and responsibly should be our top priority. Increasing awareness of this dangerous trend is an important step to keeping our families, neighborhoods, and communities safe. ”