Minnesota Traffic Safety Violations Data Webinar

CTS Webinar: Traffic Safety Violations Disposition Analysis — What the Data Tells Us

Thursday, December 3, 2026, 10:00–11:30 am, via Zoom

This webinar will look at how traffic safety enforcement and court outcomes have changed in Minnesota, and what those trends mean for efforts to reduce crashes and fatalities.

It will highlight findings from a CTS project that evaluated the enforcement and adjudication of traffic safety violations using more than 1.2 million case records from 2017 to 2022. The study found significant shifts in enforcement patterns, including declines in citations for speeding, seatbelt violations, and impaired driving, alongside a sharp increase in distracted driving citations following passage of Minnesota’s 2019 Hands-Free law.

CTS scholar Nichole Morris will explore how these enforcement trends corresponded with changes in crashes, including increases in fatal crashes alongside declines in speeding and impairment citations and a nearly 40 percent decline in distracted-driving-related crashes as enforcement increased. The webinar will also examine differences in citation patterns across Minnesota, conviction rates by charge severity, and the finding that targeted speed enforcement increased DWI citations.

Stephanie Malinoff, CTS director of strategy and operations, will provide a brief overview of Minnesota Toward Zero Deaths (TZD), and discuss why the Traffic Safety Violations Disposition Analysis was undertaken.

The webinar is free, but you must register.