Honoring Traffic Safety Leaders on Capitol Hill

For 35 years, Kevin Quinlan worked to save lives on our nation’s roads. In 1972, he began working at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), where he formed the first task force in the agency’s history to study both the impact of seatbelt use and the Minimum Drinking Age law. In 1989, Mr. Quinlan moved to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), where he spent the next twenty years, first as the NTSB’s Alcohol Program Coordinator and ultimately as the Chief of the Safety Advocacy Division. He authored five major studies, and the outcomes of each led to significant safety improvements. He was highly regarded by his colleagues in traffic safety throughout his career and at the time of his sudden death in 2008. He is thought of often, both by those he mentored and those who only know him by the groundbreaking work he did during his career.

At Responsibility.org, we honor Kevin Quinlan each year by presenting awards in his name to those who have followed in his footsteps and demonstrate the same dedication to safety that he did. The awards will be presented during a public event on December 3^rd in the Rayburn House Office Building (room B-340) from 12:30-1:30 pm. Shaquille O’Neal will join us at the event to launch a new law enforcement training initiative, a PSA centered on the need to end impaired driving will premiere, and lunch and hot chocolate will be served. Attendees will also have a chance to learn about blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels, test themselves with Fatal Vision Goggles, and what it means to #HolidayResponsibly.

This year, we have selected six individuals to receive the Kevin Quinlan Award for Excellence in Traffic Safety. The honorees are:

Jim Camp

Jim Camp is a Traffic Saf ety Resource Prosecutor (TSRP) and is a member of the District Attorney’s General Conference Training Division in Tennessee. Prior to taking the TSRP position, Jim served as the elected District Attorney for Green Lake County, Wisconsin for over sixteen years. During his legal career, Jim has authored publications on impaired driving trial advocacy through the National Traffic Law Center (NTLC) and NHTSA. Jim is a member of NHTSA’s Standardized Field Sobriety Testing (SFST) Training Program Evaluation team and for ten years, was a faculty member at the National District Attorney’s Association’s (NDAA) National Advocacy Center on the USC campus. He also lectures throughout the country on DUI, vehicular homicide, and other trial advocacy issues. In 2013, Jim was the recipient of the Tennessee District Attorney’s General Conference President’s Award and in 2009 was the recipient of the Tennessee Governor’s Highway Safety Office’s Lifesavers Award.

 

Ken Denton

Ken Denton retired from the Washington State Patrol in August 2015 after 25 dedicated years of service to the citizens of the State of Washington. After working the interstates and state highways for 10 years, Ken joined the Evidential Breath Alcohol Test Program (BTP) in 2000. The BTP is responsible for all evidential breath alcohol test instruments in the state of Washington, as well as quality assurance, operator instruction, instrument maintenance and expert courtroom testimony for over 20,000 breath alcohol tests each year. In 2010, Ken was promoted to the rank of sergeant. Ken also managed the ignition interlock oversight program for the state. He and his team were responsible for the certification and approval of six ignition interlock manufacturers, 150 service center locations and over 400 technicians across the state. Washington has been a national leader in the successful implementation of an ignition interlock program and impaired driving numbers in the state have decreased since the program was initiated.

Ken joined the Association of Ignition Interlock Program Administrators (AIIPA) as a member and board member in 2012. In May 2013, he was nominated by the board to serve as the association’s vice president. He held the position until June 2015 when his term ended and he elected to step aside due to his pending retirement. After retiring in August of this year, Ken joined the team at LMG Holdings as Vice President of Regulatory Compliance and Communications. LMG Holdings owns three independent ignition interlock brands (LifeSafer, Guardian Interlock and Monitech) operating in 46 states. Ken and his team work closely and directly with jurisdictional regulators to ensure accurate program compliance, and as a jurisdictional partner focused on public safety.

 

Moses Garcia

Moses is the Washington State TSRP. He is a veteran prosecutor with over 20 years of experience and hundreds of trials and appeals in State and Federal courts. Moses routinely works with prosecutors and law enforcement in Washington and around the nation to address technical and practical issues involving impaired driving. Working in Washington State means addressing legalized marijuana. Moses is working with other TSRPs and state Drug Recognition Experts (DREs) to refine existing tools and develop new ones to combat the alarming rise in drugged driving. He is regularly called upon to address emerging topics in law and science, both as a litigator and as an educator. His list of publications range from the annual Washington DUI Benchbook provided to judges, to his website dedicated to providing on-line resources to prosecutors and law enforcement. Moses has been honored for his outstanding work by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), the Washington State Supreme Court and the Washington State Association of Attorneys.

The Honorable Harvey Hoffman

The Honorable Harvey Hoffman has been a Judge in the 56-A District Court in Charlotte, Michigan since 1997 and was Chief Judge from 2004 to 2011. Judge Hoffman is the longest serving DWI Court judge in the United States. Prior to this, he had a private law practice in Lansing from 1983 to 1996. Judge Hoffman has previously served as the President of the Michigan Association of Drug Court Professionals (MADCP), Chairman of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) DWI Committee, and the NADCP Senior Judicial Fellow. He was also named the NHTSA Judicial Fellow for 2011-2012. Judge Hoffman is also the primary author of the Michigan Drug Treatment Court Statute and the Michigan DWI Court/Restricted License Interlock Legislation. He has been the recipient of multiple awards and recognition for his work with regard to impaired driving. He received his B.A. from Western Michigan University and his J.D. from Thomas M. Cooley Law School.

Dr. James Hedlund

Dr. Hedlund is Principal of Highway Safety North based in Ithaca New York. He spent 22 years at NHTSA in various research and management positions, most recently as Associate Administrator for Traffic Safety Programs. From 2011 to 2015 he served as a consultant on management and data analysis for the SHRP-2 naturalistic driving study of the National Academy of Sciences. He has published over 60 research studies, conference summaries, research syntheses, and guides on a variety of behavioral traffic safety subjects, including Countermeasures That Work, Traffic Safety Performance Measures for States and Federal Agencies, Distracted Driving: What Research Shows and What States Can Do, Drunk Driving: Seeking Additional Solutions, and most recently, Drug-Impaired Driving: A Guide for What States Can Do. He holds a PhD in mathematics from the University of Michigan.

The Honorable John S. Kennedy

John S. Kennedy has been a member of the Court of Common Pleas of York County, Pa. since January of 1996. He was elected in 1995 and retained in 2005 and 2015. In 1997, Judge Kennedy helped establish the York County Drug Treatment Court which was expanded several years later. This was the second drug treatment court in Pennsylvania. In 2002, he helped establish the first Reentry Court Program in the state. This program was intended to help establish a working relationship between the State Department of Corrections, State Probation and Parole, and county agencies to help incarcerated offenders reintegrate into society.

Judge Kennedy established the award-winning York County Target 25 Program. The program modified the handling of DUI cases in York County to specifically promote public safety by monitoring repeat offenders pretrial with supervised bail and alcohol monitoring. Through Target 25, York County, Pennsylvania, has experienced a 90% reduction in the number of DUI offenders who were arrested for a subsequent DUI offense within the same year. Judge Kennedy currently presides over the York County Mental Health, Drug and DUI Treatment Courts.  He is also the Orphan’s Court Judge. He is also a member of the York County Criminal Justice Advisory Board. He was the previous chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Associations Committee on Corrections and has served on various committees of the Pennsylvania Sentencing Commission and the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

We hope you will join us on December 3^rd as we recognize these outstanding leaders for their life saving work and their ongoing commitment and dedication to traffic safety.