Video: AASHTO President McKenna Makes Highway Safety a Top Priority

This AASHTO Presidential Profile video spotlights Patrick McKenna, director of the Missouri Department of Transportation. McKenna – AASHTO’s 2019-2020 president – has served as MoDOT Director since 2015, managing the seventh largest transportation network in the country. McKenna said his top emphasis area during his one-year term as AASHTO’s president is drawing more national attention to reducing motor vehicle crash fatalities – an issue he characterizes as a “public health crisis” as they claim tens of thousands of lives every year. “We really have to renew the nation’s focus on highway safety,” he explains to Transportation TV. “We’re losing over 37,000 souls on our transportation network a year and that’s entirely unacceptable. We can save lives by changing behavior.” McKenna also emphasizes the urgent need for Congress to pass a new surface transportation bill before the current Fixing America’s Surface Transportation or FAST Act funding legislation expires in September. “With all of the work that needs to be done to improve America’s aging transportation infrastructure, we need a renewed call to invest,” he tells Transportation TV.