Mark Solomon has been with PRG for over twenty-five years and directs overall operations in our Oxford, Mississippi office. He has served as program manager for over 100 traffic safety studies, for clients including NHTSA, IIHS, FMCSA, BIA, VOLPE, and over one-half of the states' highway safety offices, for which he oversaw data collection, data entry, report writing, deliverables, timelines, and all aspects of the projects.

 

Mr. Solomon is best known for conducting large field work operations. In 2001, he helped organize the evaluation for NHTSA’s first region-wide high visibility seat belt enforcement campaign, and since then has served as Project Director for all of NHTSA’s national evaluations of Click It or Ticket. He was responsible for overseeing a number of NHTSA program and evaluation projects including the management of regional rural, teen, and pickup truck occupant seat belt use demonstrations; a demonstration program on the Blue Ridge Parkway targeting Roanoke, VA commuters; distracted driving demonstrations in Delaware and California; and a very large two-year effort that used a combined enforcement message with high visibility enforcement; More Cops More Stops. Mark’s project experience extends beyond occupant restraint. He also published research on crash typing projects focused on pedestrians, large trucks, stop signed intersection, and the Capital Beltways. He works on research dealing with graduated licensing, drunk driving, interlock devices, and 24/7 programs in addition to other topics.

 

Mr. Solomon has managed many projects involving gaining access to federal, local, and state level data. He routinely assists in the design and implementation of awareness surveys for NHTSA, multiple states, IIHS, BIA, FMCSA, and other NHTSA contractors. These include intercept, on-line, and telephone survey methodologies. He has conducted focus groups with child seat providers and police officers and worked with community leaders and health coordinators to develop occupant protection programs. He has experience with the development of easy-to-use data collection forms for enforcement and publicity data, observational survey data (belts, distracted driving, cellphone use – at day and night), BAC checkpoint data collection, and roadside interviews. Many of the survey materials developed earlier for NHTSA projects are now widely used by thousands of practitioners across the United States.

 

Mr. Solomon regularly presents research at local, state, regional, and national level conferences including LEL conferences (NHTSA Region IV and VI), NHTSA Regional meetings (Regions III, IV and VI), and State Police Colonels’ conferences (NHTSA Region IV), and the annual Lifesaver and GHSA conference. Mark also is a sitting member on the State of Florida’s Occupant Protection Task Force. He serves as a reviewer for the Transportation Safety Board’s Occupant Protection Committee and is Co-Track Leader for the Lifesavers Conference’s Occupant Protection Track.

 

Before joining PRG, Mr. Solomon was an analyst with the Florida Department of Highway Safety where he provided analytical support to the Governor's Office and the Legislature as well as state and local agencies. Mark earned an undergraduate degree at Millsaps College and a Master of Science degree from Mississippi State University.