Established at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in 1936, the Traffic Institute is a national nonprofit organization which serves public agencies responsible for law enforcement, criminal justice, public safety, traffic management, and highway transportation systems. Local, county, regional, state, and federal government agencies, as well as agencies from foreign countries, are served through programs of specialized training, continuing education, research and development, publications, consultation, and direct assistance. The Institute has conducted more than 6,500 courses and has taught more than 200,000 students from all fifty states and thirty-eight foreign countries.

They publish manuals of accident investigations:

• The Traffic Accident Investigation Manual-- traffic accident investigation functions, traffic accident information from and about people, traffic accident information from roads, simple estimates of vehicle stopping, distances and speed from skid marks, traffic accident information from vehicles, lamp examination of "on" or "off" in traffic accidents, tire examination following accidents, measuring at the scenes of traffic accidents, photogrammetry for traffic accident investigation, measuring the road for after-accident situation maps, drawing after-accident situation maps, photography for traffic accident investigation, and more.
• Traffic Accident Reconstruction
• Criminal Law and Its Administration.

Address: http://nucps.northwestern.edu/

DUI's turn deadly: It makes sense that driving a heavy vehicle after drinking heavily can be deadly. Participants at the 2003 National DUI Enforcement Symposium learned first hand just how deadly such behavior really is. Amidst the wealth of information shared by keynote speaker, Dr. Jeffrey Michael, Director of the Impaired Driving and Occupant Restraint Division at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, was the fact that in 2002, the largest increase in alcohol related crashes came from drivers of SUV's, who registered an 11% increase. Additionally, Dr. Michael pointed out that in 87% of the alcohol related crashes blood alcohol levels were higher than .08. Interestingly, the number of DUI fatalities increased in 2002 but injuries decreased. Because it was the third year in a row that DUI fatalities increased, Dr. Michael called on law enforcement officials to take a leadership role in reversing the trend. Northwestern University Center for Public Safety officials promised to make all of their resources available to assist in the effort. Address: http://nucps.northwestern.edu/events/DUI/main.asp

updated 08/13/10