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Greetings!
Join me in congratulating the Central Nebraska Community Services Health and Nutrition Department in Loup City. They enjoyed big success with their safety belt education project in Central Nebraska.
Susan Bochart,Tatiana Glinsmann,and Nelva McNeff work at Central Nebraska Community Services, Inc. (CNCS). CNCS was funded by the Nebraska Office of Highway Safety to sponsor a safety project in Hall County called Hall County Stars (Safe Travel At Rural Schools). STARS targets pre-drivers and young drivers through activities at the schools to promote safety belt usage and safe driving practices. Last year they educated over 2,500 students and parents in the county.This education produced significant results in pre- and post-seat belt observations at the school they worked with. On November 16, 201, Hall County STARS staff visited 160 Trinity Lutheran Elementary students Kindergarten through 8th grades in Grand Island. Children received education about vehicle passenger safety and safe driving. The education reinforced wearing seat belts and using booster seats.
Young children in Kindergarten and 1st grade learned how to ride safely in a vehicle by "Listening for the click". They buckled up Buckle Bear Puppet's harness.
2nd - 5th grade used a Vehicle Seat Simulator and a child's booster safety seat to determine who needed to ride in a booster and who was ready to sit in a vehicle seat without a booster. 2nd-6th grades saw the egg crash demonstration and the video Buckle Up! With Penny & Pals.
7th & 8th grades were educated on safe driving and riding. They watched the DVD "Real Teen Driving". The classes discussed holding a provisional operator's permit and the dangers of distracted and impaired driving.
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Observations on 11/16/2010 and on 11/19/2010 showed that safety belt usage increased in drivers from 66% to 76%. Front seat passenger use increased from 68% to 82%, and rear-seat passenger use increased from 67% to 93%.
Great job, Central Nebraska Community Services!
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The Center for Disease Control
| | The Center for Disease Control (CDC) issued a new report on January 7,2011. One conclusion offered was, "Self-reported seat belt use has continued to increase, reaching a high of 85.0% in 2008, until it is now the social norm among residents of the United States."
Is wearing a safety belt a social norm in your community? Is it a given in your social group and with your colleagues? Safety belts are not just socially acceptable, they're the single best protection you can have in the event of a crash.
Read the CDC report
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Another crash story
| | Another unsolicited crash tale came to us via email--this time the tale involves the lack of a safety belt. Unfortunately, this girl's brother is not fine, and will always need assistance. We hear occasional claims from attendees at health fairs that wearing a safety belt is more dangerous than not wearing one. These are generally along the line of "my friend's uncle's neighbor was in a crash, and..." From more credible sources, it is clear that wearing a safety belt is your best defense in a crash. It is even more clear that death in a crash is not the only possible outcome, and that some injuries are permanent.
This email said: "It happened on the highway by my house. I wasn't involved in the accident; my brother was. He wasn't wearing his seatbelt because his dad always told him that more people die wearing one. He started going into the ditch, overcorrected, and rolled maybe 3 or 4 times before his truck came to a stop. He was ejected from the car out the driver side door. He wasn't found until 3:00 in the morning. He was unconscious. He suffered major head trama, and was in a coma for a week before they flew him out. He did live but he's now paralyzed on his left side. If my brother would've been wearing his seat belt he would still be my same old brother. He should have died, but God came into play on this one, and he was lucky."
Thanks for the work you do to promote safety belt usage.
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The "Click It Chronicle," our Click It Campaign e-letter, published whenever there is news, is available to all those interested in increasing safety belt usage. Please share this information freely. Take the information, copy to friends, businesses and organizations with the same concerns. Using the information provided will help reduce the needless fatalities and injuries on our highways and the associated costs. To subscribe to this e-letter, join the coalition, or be removed from the list, contact the Click It Team at cidri@safenebraska.org. |
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