The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) invites you to participate in a webinar on January 7, 2020 at 1:00 PM EST, about the importance of an advanced vehicle safety technology called "vehicle-to-everything" communications (or "V2X" for short) and the promise it holds to protect and improve safety for first responders and the general traveling public.

NHTSA recently released a research report about an immediate potential risk to V2X communications at this link. V2X is a wireless technology that allows vehicles to share critical safety information with other road users (including pedestrians and bicyclists) as well as with highway infrastructure. V2X works by sending wireless communications on the 5.9 GHz "Safety Band," which is a 75 MHz band of wireless spectrum reserved for transportation safety purposes.

In 2017, an estimates 46,000 crashes occurred involving emergency response vehicles, leading to nearly 17,000 injuries and 143 fatalities. As you know, first responders put their own lives on the line to save Americans and we have a duty to protect them. V2X technology, when applied to emergency response vehicles and traffic signaling infrastructure, can help prevent these tragic crashes.

As part of NHTSA's mission, we want to work collaboratively with members of the first responder community to improve safety. We encourage you to learn more about V2X technology and the safety benefits it offers, as well as the important role that spectrum plays in enabling this technology, at the webinar on January 7, 2020 at 1:00 PM EST. Please register below and submit any questions to Special Assistant Mitchell Kominsky at mitchell.kominsky@dot.gov.