The following categories contains descriptions of new and recent products or publications from a variety of agencies and organizations of interest to Safe Communities coalitions. Click on the Title of the product to view on-line or to view the publication in Acrobat Reader:
Aggressive Driving | Coalition Building | CPS | Data Analysis | Disabled Drivers | Distracted Driving | Employers | EMS | Health Industry | Impaired Driving | Injury Prevention | Law Enforcement | Motorcycles | New Drivers | Occupant Protection | Older Drivers | Pedestrians
Aggressive Driving
Aggressive Driving Enforcement. In order to get to the point where aggressive driving is unacceptable, NHTSA has issued a new tool to help communities reduce injuries and deaths called Aggressive Driving Enforcement: Strategies for Implementing Best Practices. The publication defines aggressive driving, reviews existing legislation, describes ways to raise public awareness, outlines guidelines for prosecutors and judges, details strategies for traffic law enforcement, and summarizes programs that are working in other communities.
Aggressive Driving Prosecutors' Planner. Developed to assist prosecutors in addressing the issue of Aggressive Driving. The Planner contains samples of a press release, an Op-Ed Article, a drop-in news article and talking points.
Stop Aggressive Driving/Alto al Manejo Agresivo. This kit was designed to reach as wide an audience as possible and features everyday people. All kit materials are in English/Spanish format and include editorials, drop-in-articles, op-eds, radio PSAs, a brochure, mail-back cards and camera-ready cartoons for newspapers, newsletters and magazines. This approach of using English/Spanish in one publication is the one most favored by Hispanic organizations.
Child Passenger Safety
Corazón de mi vida/Child Passenger Safety Handbook and Kit. This bilingual kit provides information and materials for community-based organizations and others to implement a child passenger safety program in Latino communities. The kit utilizes the cultural strengths of the Latino community as the foundation for passenger protection education. The Corazón de MI vida kit includes: a community coordinator's handbook, a set of door hangers (English/Spanish), 50 stickers, 3 event posters, 20 bumper stickers, 30 mini child seat checklist tags (English/Spanish) and a safety Loteria game.
Safety School Teacher's Lounge. Loads of information to put classrooms into overdrive with prepared lesson plans to help teach students about safety issues that will be both educational and enjoyable. Coloring books, games, etc are also available.
Coalition Building
Building a Partnership for Community Health Care. This EMS and Public Health Bulletin is the result of a series of roundtable discussions sponsored by NHTSA and MCHB for the purpose of ensuring the continued effectiveness of EMS systems in a changing environment. The objective of these discussions is to identify strategies for integrating emergency services with public health. This initial bulletin summarizes the first roundtable discussion and provides a range of recommendations for preserving adequate emergency medical services.
How Coalitions Work: The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Ad Council are sponsoring a web site that has useful information on developing and expanding coalitions. The web site is helpyourcommunity.org. For great ideas from their Success Stories section, CLICK HERE. To try out the coalition finder feature, just type in a zip code.
Center focuses on traffic law: The National Traffic Law Center (NTLC) is a free resource designed to benefit prosecutors, judges, and others in the justice system. The mission of NTLC is to improve the quality of justice in traffic safety adjudications by increasing the awareness of highway safety issues through the compilation, creation and dissemination of legal and technical information and by providing training and reference services. For more information on how NTLC can help prosecutors and law enforcement in your community CLICK HERE.
Traffic Safety and Diverse Populations Visit NHTSA's new Multicultural Website and learn more about traffic safety and African Americans, Latinos/Hispanics, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, and American Indians/Alaskan Natives.
Guide to Community Preventive Services. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Center for Injury Prevention and Control is developing the Guide to Community Preventive Services to provide recommendations to decision makers about traffic safety and other interventions appropriate for use by communities.
Community How To Guides on Underage Drinking Prevention. Nine excellent guides were developed with the National Association of Governors' Highway Safety Representatives as a part of the Underage Drinking Prevention Project. The Community Guides take into account what was learned throughout the project and are intended to assist other advocates who want to implement a comprehensive program. The new guides were designed to assist communities not only with the underage drinking problem, but with any community-based advocacy effort, advising locals on how to deal with the following issues: Coalition Building; Needs Assessment/Strategic Planning; Enforcement; Prevention/Education; Public Policy; Media Relations; Evaluation; Self-Sufficiency; and Resources.
Data Analysis
Fatalities and Injuries to 0-8 Year Old Passengers. NHTSA's National Center for Statistics and Analysis has released a technical report, Fatalities and Injuries to 0-8 Year Old Passenger Vehicle Occupants based on Impact Attributes (DOT HS 809 410). This comprehensive report takes a look at the pattern and trends in fatalities and injuries to these young passengers.
The Economic Burden of Traffic Crashes on Employers Employers pay for injuries that occur on and off the job. Annually between 1998-2000, these injuries cost employers almost $60 billion. This report demonstrates that employers implementing prevention programs that increase restraint use and reduce impaired driving have the potential to realize large health care savings.
Drugs and Human Performance Fact Sheet: A technical report from the Office of Research and Technology was developed to identify sixteen of the most commonly used and abused drugs. The 103 page report, which was the result of a meeting held in August 2000 sponsored by the National Safety Council (NSC), the State of Washington Traffic Safety Commission, and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, gives information on psychopharmacology and the specific effects each drug has on driving.
The Crash Statistics web page for NHTSA is now live! The collection of data includes: Side Impact Inflatable Restraint Systems, Research Note - Motor vehicle Traffic Crashes, Crashworthiness Data System Data Files, Traffic Safety Fact Sheet, and much more. To view NHTSA's Crash Statistics, CLICK HERE.
Editorial Calendar Trauma Season: National Mortality Data for Fatal Unintentional Injury Among Children Ages 14 and Under During Summer Months has been posted on the Safe Kids website. These are the findings from SAFE KIDS' national data collection. To view this information, CLICK HERE.
2003 Annual Assessment. Traffic fatalities and injuries for 2002 and the assessment is posted on the web site. For a news release on 2002 CLICK HERE. For the assessment CLICK HERE.
State alcohol cost fact sheets online. Impaired Driving in the United States: State Alcohol Cost Fact Sheets were updated in 2002 to shows the costs of impaired driving incidents and the cost savings that could be realized if a state had a certain impaired driving prevention law. This updated version contains new cost savings calculations (e.g., automobile impoundment, etc.) and has a new section devoted to Prevention Savings of Occupant Protection Measures. The Methods and Definitions Fact Sheet (.pdf version) describes the data sources for each state, how savings and costs per prevention were calculated, and provides the definitions of the cost categories. The User’s Guide provides information about the state-level estimates and how they can be used to educate the public about the costs of impaired driving. To find out the costs of alcohol impaired driving in your State CLICK HERE.
The Economic Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes 2000. Society, individual crash victims and their families, friends and employers are affected by motor vehicle crashes in many ways. This new report examines costs resulting from motor vehicle crashes. The purpose of presenting these costs is to place in perspective the economic losses that result from these crashes, and to provide information to government and private sector officials for use in structuring programs to reduce or prevent these losses.
National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA) - Traffic Records This site was designed with the purpose of improving the timeliness, accuracy, completeness, uniformity, integration, and accessibility of the safety data for highway safety purposes at the local, state, and national levels.
Census Bureau Multimedia Page. In July, the U.S. Census Bureau put on line a multimedia page to raise awareness about the importance of traffic safety. It offers digital media files for broadcasters and publishers working on holiday travel news features and includes a video news release, downloadable audio sound bites, photos and related statistics and other information. For more detail CLICK HERE.
Disabled Drivers
Distracted Driving
Driver Distraction - Congressional Testimony. Statement of L. Robert Shelton, NHTSA Executive Director, before the Transportation Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, United States House Of Representative - May 9, 2001.
Emergency Medical Services
Developing Best Practices of Emergency Care for the Alcohol Impaired Patient. NHTSA, ACEP and ENA partnered to bring the current state of knowledge about alcohol impairment and treatment of patients with AUPs to a broad audience of trauma surgeons, emergency physicians, emergency nurses, and paramedics. Recommendations were made at a national conference in 2001 and are contained in this useful report.
Summer is Trauma Season. This Safe Kids study is the first ever look at seasonal trends in national injury mortality among children, confirming that a "trauma season" does exist. During the summer months, when children are out of school, lack adult supervision and spend more time outdoors, the risks are heightened.
Employers
Employee Safety Programs. By implementing a simple highway safety program in your workplace, you can greatly reduce the risks faced by your employees and their families, while protecting your company's bottom line. Also the Cost of Crashes to Employers.
Health Industry
Traffic Safety in Managed Care Resource Kit. Managed care's involvement in highway and traffic safety can make a difference. This American Association of Health Plans resource kit offers a variety of proven examples of community-based activities designed to assist health care providers in meeting the challenge of reducing traffic-related injuries and fatalities in the communities their health plan serves.
State Health Facts Online The Kaiser Family Foundation has set up a new Internet resource that offers comprehensive and current health information for all 50 states, DC and US territories. The site offers health policy information on a broad range of issues such as managed care, health insurance coverage and the uninsured, Medicaid, Medicare, women's health, minority health, and others. Users can view information for a single state or compare and rank data across all 50 states and compare it to US totals.
Not Just in Spanish! New Materials Available In 5 Different Languages: The states in NHTSA New England Region have translated four traffic safety messages on injury prevention. The brochures have been translated into languages that were selected based on Census 2000 data, Klein School Survey, telephone surveys from Massachusetts Department of Public Health, cultural resource centers, and local translation services. Child passenger safety (Massachusetts laws applied), safety belt use, bicycle safety, and pedestrian safety brochures are available in English, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Traditional Chinese, Khmer, and Russian. These three-panel style brochures (double-sided) are available in color and black and white and are now available on the Internet in portable document format (PDF). To download these brochures and to get updates, CLICK HERE.
Impaired Driving
Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest. planner and promotional materials can be downloaded from this site. These materials alert you of the latest crackdown information and now has the Spanish version available for downloading.
Click It or Ticket: Campaign Model for Boosting Belt Use in Minority Communities. Summarizes the implementation of South Carolina's Diversity Outreach Subcommittee to (1) develop recommendations to ensure that during their Click It or Ticket mobilization, differential enforcement (i.e., racial profiling) would not occur and (2) to assist in marketing the campaign to the minority community to generate increases in safety belt/child seat use. As a result of the program, a 14.3% increase in safety belt use rates in 2001 by the minority community was realized and without a single complaint of harassment received by any enforcement agency in the state.
New Web-Based Alcohol Cost Calculator for Businesses. George Washington University Medical Center has a new, free on-line calculator, which allows businesses to calculate company losses that result directly from alcohol problems among their employees. To use the Calculator, a business simply enters its business category and number of employees. To get a customized report, available instantly, which details the findings, CLICK HERE.
A How to Guide for Victim Impact Panels. This document is a "how-to" manual that describes the development and implementation of drunk driving victim impact panels. Victim impact panels bring together victims of drunk driving crashes and first-time impaired offenders. These panels are a routine sentencing option in many courts, driving programs, and schools. The Guide was originally conceived and developed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). It was revised and reprinted by MADD and NHTSA in July 2001.
SAMHSA has issued a new report called "Delayed Alcohol Use Linked to Fewer Problems with Abuse or Dependence as Adults." Persons reporting they first used alcohol before age 15 are more than five times as likely to report past year alcohol dependence or abuse as adults than persons who first used alcohol at age 21 or older, based on a special analysis of the 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The full NSDUH Report: Alcohol Dependence or Abuse and Age at First Use at: Other OAS reports on underage drinking: http://oas.samhsa.gov/youth.htm#UnderAge
The ABCs of BAC - A Guide to Understanding Blood Alcohol Concentration and Alcohol Impairment: A tri-fold brochure defining BAC, affects, medication, impairment, and a table on BAC levels is now available online in PDF format.
State Alcohol Related Fatality Rates 2003: This report examines the extent of alcohol related fatalities in traffic crashes across states and over time and normalizes this data by estimating the rate of these fatalities as a function of the Annual Vehicle Miles of Travel (VMT) data for that state. The rate of alcohol related fatalities as a measure of the State’s VMT serves as an important metric for States and NHTSA Regions to evaluate the effectiveness of their drunk-driving countermeasures as well as assess the performance of their alcohol programs relative to their states and regions. The report is available online at http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/departments/nrd-30/ncsa/
The Nation's new intervention strategy to stop impaired driving. Impaired driving has been identified as a national epidemic and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has constructed three methods of intervention to help combat this growing problem in our society; High Visibility Enforcement, Prosecution and DWI Courts, and Screening and Brief Intervention. StopImpairedDriving.org has produced a flyer that identifies the problem, states the objectives and provides solutions on what you can do to assist in remedying this disease.
NHTSA and the US Department of Education with the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention released the Safe Lanes on Campus: A Guide for Preventing Impaired Driving and Underage Drinking. Grounded in research literature, the 60-page guidebook describes strategies for combating underage drinking and impaired driving. To learn more about Safe Lanes on Campus, Click Here.
Find Treatment for Substance Abuse. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has launched a new website featuring a drug and alcohol abuse treatment program locator. The locator is attached to a national database where users can easily find treatment facilities by clicking on the desired state located on the national image map. In addition, a mental health and buprenorphine physician locator is available and phone numbers for additional advice, which is available in English, Spanish, and for the hearing impaired. To learn more about treatment, CLICK HERE.
The Impaired Driving Division of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has created a web site distributing information on success stories, program toolkits, research, funding, legislation, a calendar of current events, press room, and partners. To view the information, CLICK HERE.
Hardcore Drunk Driving State Sourcebook Hardcore Drunk Driving State Sourcebook released. The Century Council (TCC) released in October 2003 a comprehensive Hardcore Drunk Driving State Sourcebook that lists recommendations to help educate law enforcement, judges, prosecutors, and state legislatures about the problem of hardcore drunk driving as well as to highlight state specific information on hardcore provisions and regulations. To learn more, CLICK HERE.
Impaired Driving Prevention Toolkit. The Community Anti Drug Coalitions of America’s Impaired Driving Prevention Toolkit is a product of a NHTSA partnership. It is a “Prevention Primer 101,” providing basic facts; ways to evaluate the problem and/or successful initiatives in your communities; concrete steps to help integrate this issue into your current activities; and resources you can turn to for additional guidance. To view the information, CLICK HERE.
Techniques for Effective Alcohol Management (TEAM) created radio spots and public service announcements focused on promoting designated driver and safety belt use that were broadcasted on radio stations in participating National Football League cities during the month of December. National distribution of these public service announcements are still available on the web. Developed in partnership with Techniques for Effective Alcohol Management, the radio spots and PSAs can be customized for individual teams. CLICK HERE.
Injury Prevention
The Injury Prevention Web hosts the web sites of several agencies and organizations working to prevent injuries. This site contains injury data for every U.S. state, more than 700 links to government and non-profit injury prevention sites worldwide, suggestions of books for your library, the gateway for information about scheduled injury prevention teleconferences, and listings of jobs in the injury research and prevention field.
Safety Literature.org The Injury Prevention Web provides this online source to recently published abstracts on injury prevention.
Law Enforcement
Albuquerque New Mexico: Safe Streets Program. This report documents Albuquerque NM's Safe Streets program. This special traffic enforcement program revolved on four major elements: saturation patrols, follow-up patrols, freeway speed enforcement, and sobriety checkpoints.
Motorcycles
National Agenda for Motorcycle Safety. This strategic plan provides a shared vision for future motorcycle safety efforts. It comprehensively examines issues including the human, social, vehicle, and environmental factors that influence motorcycle safety. Each issue is examined from the standpoint of where we are today, where we want to be in future, and the best way to get there. Eighty-two recommendations are provided for improving motorcycle safety.
New Drivers
Make Your Parties Rock: A Guide to Safe and Sober Event Planning. In partnership with NHTSA and NOYS (National Organizations for Youth Safety), this planner is written for youth, by youth, and focuses on activities that provide safe and sober alternatives to underage drinking. The planner recognizes that youth enjoy celebrating events in their lives: from small gatherings of friends to large school/community activities such as prom or graduation all night events. This guide shows how youth can enjoy these events in a safe and substance-free environment and still have a great time!
Youth Impaired Driving Manual for Sheriffs. Combating underage drinking and driving in rural areas is a primary emphasis of sheriffs in their effort to protect the motoring public. By combining many of the proven methods of enforcement and education approaches with new or different programs, the desired results can be achieved. Although this publication primarily targets needs of the rural sheriff, the information presented is broad enough for use by any law enforcement agency.
FACE® Announces New Website: FACE has redesigned their website to a user-friendly format that offers resources, training, and action plans if you want to help make a difference when it comes to alcohol issues. FACE® offers a FREE downloadable Community Action Kit section on their website. It contains research-based materials and step-by-step instructions for raising awareness and preventing youth access to alcohol in your community. To learn more about FACE®, go to their website at http://www.faceproject.org/index.html.
The “I Promise Program” surveyed driving instructors on the one thing they could get parents of young driver to do and generated a report called Driving Instructors Remind Parents: Practice Practice Practice, which is now available on their web site. The report was just in time for the National Safety Council’s “Crash Free June”, which was the theme for Nation Safety Month this year. To learn more on the I Promise Program report, CLICK HERE and to learn more about Crash Free June, CLICK HERE.
A Fork in the Road Toolkit created by FACE is based on the Institute of Medicine’s National Academy of Sciences summary report on “Reducing Underage Drinking.” The toolkit provides a roadmap for organizations wanting to develop and implement programs dealing with the epidemic of underage drinking. The toolkit contains presentation instructions, assessment and planning tools, the Institute of Medicine’s report, and PowerPoint slides. To learn more about this program and to order materials call 1-888-822-3223 or CLICK HERE to go to FACE web site.
Driver's Edge for teens. AAA, Sprint, Bridgestone and the NV Highway Patrol Association are sponsoring an MTV-style program called the Driver's Edge, a non-profit 501-c (3) organization, which addresses youth driver education through a unique combination of classroom and "behind the wheel" experience. Driving exercises address the most common driving situations that can lead to crashes. Skid Pad Exercise includes: Evasive Lane Change Exercise, ABS/NON-ABS Braking Exercise, and Front-Wheel Drive/Rear-Wheel Drive Comparison Exercise. A video demonstrates the program. For more detail and to see the video, CLICK HERE.
New Materials for Community Youth Programs. NHTSA has a variety of tools and resources communities can use to address underage drinking and youth driving. Click on the link in the title above to view a list with links to these products.
Determine Why There are Fewer Young Alcohol-Impaired Drivers. Drinking and driving in the U.S. decreased substantially from 1982 to 1998 and the number of young drivers in fatal crashes with a positive BAC dropped 61 percent during this time. This study reviews data on youth drinking and driving, analyzes differences across the states, and examines evidence of the effectiveness of laws and programs that may have affected youth drinking and driving.
Effect on Fatality Risk of Changing from Secondary to Primary Seat Belt Enforcement, was written by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The IIHS examined driver fatality data during 1989-2003 in 10 jurisdictions - California, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Washington - where secondary laws were amended to primary. Researchers compared these data with data in states where the laws remained secondary. IIHS found that when states strengthen their laws from secondary enforcement to primary, driver death rates decline by an estimated 7 percent.
5 Years of Air Bag Safety in America. This National Safety Council and Air Bag Safety Campaign report documents the continuing challenges as children are still riding unrestrained and still being killed by air bags. Behavior changes and air bag improvements have reduced air bag related fatalities dramatically in 2001. But the problem is not totally solved.
Motor Vehicle Occupant Injury Prevention Strategies. Child safety seat laws decreased fatal injuries by a median of 35%. Studies estimated that 400 to 600 lives could be saved each year if all states enacted 0.08% blood alcohol concentration (BAC) laws. Mandatory safety belt laws decreased fatal motor vehicle injuries by a median of 8%. A new systematic review of studies demonstrates that a variety of interventions are effective at reducing crash-related deaths, the leading cause of death for Americans aged 1-34. These interventions include laws, enhanced enforcement and programs that promote safe behavior. The Task Force on Community Preventive Services, an independent panel of public health experts, worked with injury prevention scientists from CDC to conduct this review recently published in the Morbidity and Morality Weekly Report.
Older Drivers
SeniorDrivers.Org. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has created a new web site to help seniors stay safely behind the wheel for as long as possible. Tools include items on Health and Fitness, Getting Ready, Driving, Travel Tips, Emergencies, Quiz, and Research. Information is available in web page and video formats. The site also features news and links. To get more information, CLICK HERE.
Pedestrians (Pedicycles)
Safe Routes to School Toolkit. This toolkit has been designed to assist you in initiating and implementing a SR2S program. Many successful programs began with just one or two volunteers organizing a Walk and Bike to School Day, using the energy generated from a single event to build a SR2S program. Other SR2S programs were created through a community-wide Task Force organized by public officials to address traffic issues. There is no “right” way to start the program. Customizing your program to the needs of your community will ensure the success of your program but your chance of success will increase if you follow in the footsteps of the pilot programs.
Safer Journey: Interactive Pedestrian Safety Awareness. Safer Journey was developed by FHWA to improve the level of pedestrian knowledge for all road users and safety practitioners. You may preview the program on-line by clicking on the link above or request the program on CD-Rom by emailing Leverson.Boodlal@fhwa.dot.gov
Bikeability Checklist: How bikeable is your community? This useful tool can help you find the answer. Take a ride and use this checklist to decide if your neighborhood is a friendly place to bicycle. Take heart if you find problems, there are ways you can make things better.
Walkability Checklist: How walkable is your community? This useful tool can help you find the answer. Take a walk and use this checklist to decide if your neighborhood is a friendly place to walk. Take heart if you find problems, there are ways you can make things better.
