Safe Communities Warehouse

The following categories contain descriptions of new and recent products or publications from a variety of agencies and organizations of interest to Safe Communities coalitions.

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.

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 - (Click the link to go to the NHTSA Traffic Safety Catalog, scroll down to Title: then type Corazon de mi vida in the text box to see available products) 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.

WHALE - An identification program that stared in the early 1990s by Connie Day, a child caregiver in Virginia, who wondered what would happen to the children in her care in the event of a car crash. The program is now recognized and used by emergency personnel in 34 States.

Use the Five-Star Ease of Use Ratings - NHTSA now provides parents a new five-star ratings system that allows you to evaluate how easy certain car seat features are to use before you buy a seat.

Identifying Strategies to Reduce the Percentage of Unrestrained Young Children - The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that contribute to nonuse of occupant restraints by children 5 through 7 years of age riding in motor vehicles, and to identify strategies to increase restraint use in this age group.

Coalition Building

Safe Communities: The First Six Months start-up guide are now available on-line by clicking on the links above. The brochure is designed to help coalitions sell the Safe Communities approach to business, community leaders, health professionals and others. The guide is intended to help traffic safety and injury prevention advocates get the process started and organize a coalition to prevent and reduce injuries in your community. You may order hard copies from the Safe Communities Service Center at Safe.Communities@nhtsa.dot.gov

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

State Traffic Safety Information (STSI) - STSI is a by-State profile of traffic safety data and information including: crash statistics, economic costs, legislation status, funding programs, and more.

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 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.

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.

Fatal Injuries Among Children by Race and Ethnicity, United States 1999-2002 - Injury death rates by mechanism and race/ethnicity have been documented for the entire population but not for children alone (7). This report summarizes death rates in the United States from both unintentional and intentional injury during 1999--2002 for children aged 0--19 years by race/ethnicity. This report also compares the racial/ethnic disparity in injury rates by race during 1999--2002 with the disparity during the 1980s and 1990s to determine whether progress had been made in addressing this problem.

2009 Traffic Safety Facts - Previous to current facts - motor vehicle travel is the primary means of transportation in the United States, providing an unprecedented degree of mobility. Yet for all its advantages, deaths and injuries resulting from motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for people of every age from 3 through 6 and 8 through 34 (based on 2005 data).

Distracted Driving

Current and previous NHTSA research investigates how distraction impacts driver performance, and develops and evaluated vehicle-based countermeasures to minimize the negative effects. See the research.

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.

Emergency Medical Services Outcomes Evaluation - The primary goal of this work is to support and facilitate EMS outcomes research and evaluation to be conducted by the broad EMS community. In essence, a "blueprint" and a set of "tools" has been developed that EMS practitioners can use to evaluate the effectiveness of prehospital care.

Emergency Medical Services Education Agenda for the Future: A Systems Approach - This vision for the EMS education system of the future will accommodate the increasing sophistication and changing nature of EMS. It will clarify the educational decision-making process, and establish avenues for input and research. This proposal will promote national consistency, but is flexible enough to accommodate state and local variations. These concepts will enable timely changes in patient care.

Employers

NETSWork - a twice-monthly newsletter, which features workplace traffic safety news and information is now available online to registered users.

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.

Health Industry

School Health Organization - Schools are assuming an increasingly important role in health promotion, disease prevention, and injury prevention in the lives of children and adolescents. To help schools deal with issues that vary from violence to substance abuse to obesity, more than 300 health, mental health, safety, school health and education professionals joined together in developing the Health, Mental Health and Safety Guidelines for Schools (HMHSGS.) The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the National Association of School Nurses (NASN), with funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration/Maternal and Child Health Bureau (HRSA/MCHB), led the project. For more details, visit http://www.schoolhealth.org/

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.

Impaired Driving

DRIVE SOBER OR GET PULLED OVER - 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

State Alcohol Related Fatality Rates - 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.

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

Motorcycle Helmet Use Laws - motorcycle helmets provide the best protection from head injury for motorcyclists involved in traffic crashes. The passage of helmet use laws governing all motorcycle operators and passengers is the most effective method of increasing helmet use.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Occupant Protection

Nighttime Enforcement Of Seat Belt Laws: An Evaluation of Three Community Programs - Enforcement of seat belt laws has been conducted largely during daylight hours. Daytime enforcement programs have worked well to improve observed belt use rates during the day, but they have been shown less often to affect late-night usage. Fatality data show that unbelted occupants at night are a large portion of the fatality problem in the U.S. and that a substantial reduction in fatalities could be achieved by getting late-night occupants to buckle up.

Evaluation of the Buckle Up in Your Truck Programs - To address the challenge of low seat belt use among pickup truck occupants, particularly young males, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration initiated a series of high-visibility enforcement demonstration programs called Buckle Up in Your Truck (BUIYT).

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.