New safety sign system coming to Cass County

CASS COUNTY, N.D. (KVRR) – Cass County is bringing a new system to the area that will monitor drivers’ behaviors on the roads. It’s called SmartSign, which is an intelligent driver feedback sign that can identify speeding, distracted driving and unbelted drivers.

It will then notify them of the unsafe driving behavior in real time.

“It’s like a radar sign that you would see in a neighborhood or need road construction that would give you your speed,” said Leah Kelm of Vision Zero. “But this one also gives you feedback if you are texting or when you are not wearing your seatbelt. It’s a technology that uses an infrared laser. So it’s not invasive and from there, if you are doing those unsafe behaviors on the roads you’ll get feedback for it.”

County leaders say it is a non-invasive system which uses advanced infrared sensor technology to keep drivers’ identities anonymous while simultaneously collecting information.

Leah Kelm with Vision Zero, explains what will be happening in the coming weeks.

“We will have eight locations throughout the county,” said Kelm. “We have one SmartSign which is the sign that gives the feedback. And then we have eight of the detectors. The sign can be moved to wherever those detectors are. From there, it will be on the side of the road providing that feedback.”

For the county itself, they will also be able to use the data that is collected. They’ll be able to see how many times drivers are detected to be distracted, without a seatbelt and speeding. And use that data to make the county roads safer.

“Being able to provide that immediate feedback to drivers is great, but also having some data so that it allows us to look across the county on our road network,” said Jason Benson, the Cass County engineer. “Which roads may need to have a higher emphasis for safety improvements.”

According to officials, this will be a three year program, with the detectors being moved every year.