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Protecting Our Youngest Passengers: KC Scout on Car Seat Safety

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When it comes to keeping people safe on the road, the smallest details can make the biggest difference. That is exactly what Emergency Response Operators, Kennith Robinson and Hector Ortiz set out to prove in their Fox 4 feature on how to properly inspect and install car seats. On Thursday, Dec. 18, Robinson and Ortiz spent their morning walking parents/caregivers through the importance of a properly installed car seat – and showing them how to do it right. “We had to get height and weight measurements for each child, plus their ages to make sure they were in the right seat,” Robinson explained. “Once we did that, the parents or caretakers had to fill out the form provided by us to register and at that time we were able to match the child with the proper seat and adjust to fit.” When used correctly, car seats reduce the risk of death by 71% for infants and 54% for toddlers, while booster seats reduce serious injury risk by 45% for children ages 4-8 compared to seat belts alone. ...
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Work Zone Inspections - 2025

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  Work Zone inspections are a very vital part in keeping crew members safe while working in the field. They may seem tedious and even extreme at times, but these inspections could be standing between a crew member making it home safe or not. The Kansas City District takes these reviews very seriously, and this year it paid off. Work Zone Inspections are comprised of multiple different categories. A few of these categories include advanced warning area, transition area, activity area, termination area, and additional inspection area. Each work zone is evaluated based off the Work Zone Inspection Grading Sheet and although crews do not receive a final “letter grade,” this sheet showed that the KC District improved quite a bit in comparison to the previous district inspection. Preparation for these evaluations takes lots of time and coordination. KC Work Zone Coordinator, Doneisha Wigfall served as the Work Zone Coordinator for the KC District this year. “I compiled the list of ...
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MoDOT Leaders Shine at Operations Academy

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Each year, MoDOT selects a small group of candidates to participate in the Operations Academy. This year, Traffic Systems Supervisor at Gateway Guide, Tawanda Bryant and Traffic Systems Supervisor at KC Scout in the Kansas City District, Kelly Alvarez, were nominated for this exciting opportunity. The Operations Academy is a professional development program focused on Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO). Throughout the virtual portion and in-person portion of this academy, individuals learned about topics such as performance management, systems engineering fundamentals, managing disruptions and corridor operations, capability maturity models, and workforce leadership development. Not only is it a huge accomplishment to be nominated for this program, but it is an even bigger accomplishment to be selected for the final presentations. “Out of 45 submissions, only six were selected for group presentations – including mine, which focused on the 2024 cyberattack on ...
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From Missouri to Texas - Growing Knowledge in Damage Prevention

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  Our KC Scout team is always eager to expand their knowledge and to grow as a team. This fall, York Morlan did his part by attending Texas 811 Summit, a damage prevention conference, held in Galveston, Texas. While Morlan has previously attended the Missouri Summit twice, this was his first year attending the event in Texas. “The Texas Summit and MO Summit are very similarly organized. The biggest difference is that there are different presenters, topics, and viewpoints of the same issues,” Morlan noted.   Although his time at the Summit was brief, Morlan made the most of his time with a schedule full of different classes and workshops. Examples of these classes include the “Damage Investigation Workshop,” “Rethinking Trench Safety,” “Emergency Response After a Line Strike,” and “Mindset Matters,” among others.   In between classes Morlan took advantage of his downtime and spent it speaking to different vendors and exploring new innovations. “I spoke with the CEO o...
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Scout Representative Attends the National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE) in Atlanta, Georgia

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  This past month, KC Scout Incident Management Coordinator, Marcus Slaughter and the  KC’26 Transportation Director, Jason Sims attended the National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE) event in Atlanta, Georgia to discuss and collaborate with other transportation employees about the upcoming FIFA World Cup. This 2-day event hosted around 20+ transportation representatives from many major cities/states all over the country, including, Miami, Seattle, Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey, Texas, Missouri, and Georgia. This past summer, prior to the event, Atlanta hosted six matches, serving as a precursor to the larger 2026 FIFA World Cup. “Although I didn’t attend any of those matches, there was still a wealth of information shared on what to potentially expect when Kansas City hosts their matches next year, both good and bad,” Slaughter said. During their time in Atlanta, not only did they learn lots of valuable information in regards to the upcoming FIFA World Cup, bu...
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Scout Representative Attends TMC Pooled Fund Study in Austin, Texas

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  They say everything’s bigger in Texas, and the 2025 TMC Pooled Fund Study (PFS) was no different. While this event is typically held in the spring, this year it was moved to the fall, providing the opportunity to pair the study with Texas DOT’s Transportation Systems Management & Operations (TMSO) Summit, making the event bigger and better. Traffic Systems Supervisor, Kelly Alvarez attended this year’s event in Austin, Texas. “ The range of topics for the TSMO Summit and the TMC PFS are so vast,” says Alvarez. “Everything from cyber security, to V2X (short for Vehicle-to-Everything referring to technology that allows vehicles to communicate with other vehicles, pedestrians, infrastructure, and networks), to TMC best practices, roadway and incident detection systems, World Cup, Dynamic Message Sign policy, Motorist Assist programs, Drones, etc. were discussed.”   Having an event such as this one, where individuals from various state DOTs and Federal Highway Association...
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Implementing the Single Point Target

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  With the 2026 FIFA World Cup approaching, KC Scout is brainstorming all the ways that we can make this worldwide event run as seamless as possible. One of those ways is by simplifying travel time messages on our roadside message boards. With visitors traveling to Missouri from all over the world, KC Scout thought of a way that we could make Scouts message boards easy to read and understand for everyone. With a single point target. For many years, Scouts message boards have listed several locations with the current time it takes to travel to that location. In the past, drivers have reported that these boards are difficult to analyze and understand when they are not familiar with the location. Adding additional information, such as distance, will help travelers be prepared for what to expect.  According to the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), “Travel time should be tied to the distance to a particular destination or junction so that road users can esti...
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