1. Call to order.
2. Presentation and discussion of Visioning Meeting results.
3. Presentation and discussion of traffic safety data.
4. Menus of sector activities.
5. Assignments for next meeting.
6. Next meeting scheduled.
7. Other business.

The previous chapter explains how to display the data collected at the Visioning Meeting. A typed summary of the results should be given to the Community Partner Team members during this meeting. The fourth meeting of the Community Partner Team should be dedicated to review and open discussion of the results of the Visioning Meeting and traffic safety facts.

The Community Partner Team leader should have started to gather the quantitative data sets as soon as the process began. Presenting data can be problematic if you only show numbers and do not help people put that data into context. In other words, saying that your community had 90 crashes in 1998 does not really tell the audience much. Is that number good or bad? To help them understand this, the quantitative data needs to be compared with other jurisdictions that people are familiar with, such as a neighboring county, their state or the nation. When comparing different populations, convert the data to a common denominator—the number of people in each place—and then use the 90 crashes as the numerator to present a rate per population. Then you can say that the crash rate per 1,000 people is better, worse or the same as the other jurisdictions in your comparison.

State and regional traffic safety contacts can help you gather and interpret the available data. Contact names and details are included in Appendix C. There is a good likelihood that one of these people might come to your Community Partner Team meeting and share his or her view of the data as well as providing you with the information. Typically, some type of law enforcement or ambulance report follows every injury-related vehicle crash. There is a tremendous amount of data available regarding traffic safety in your community. Below are some of the basic pieces of the quantitative assessment that should be presented at the meeting. Some of these may already have been completed by traffic safety organizations. Bar graphs are good tools for presenting any trend data. Again, it is helpful to compare your local data to regional, state and national data.

Using a map of your service area and available data about the location of crashes, plot every crash location with a stickpin or sticker dot. Use several years of data. You should look for clusters of dots. If clusters appear, that typically indicates that you should examine the area to determine if road conditions, better signs or sight lines can be improved, helping to prevent further crashes. It may take some time, but in most cases a “dead man’s curve” can usually be straightened, improved warning signs posted or rumble strips cut in the road to decrease driving speeds. Other factors, such as speeding, may require an alternative solution, such as stricter enforcement of traffic laws or re-engineering the road.

Crash data include information on the driver and the time the crash occurred. Look at the data for your community and note any trends. Are winter nights the most common time for crashes to occur? If so, think about targeting messages regarding safe winter driving habits and occupant safety during your campaign. Are younger drivers, those 16 to 24 years old, and those older than 70, involved in a disproportionate share of vehicle crashes? Adjust your messages accordingly. It should be obvious, once you look at the data, what age groups should be targeted.

Every hospital uses the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM). One of the many diagnosis codes is for tracking motor vehicle-related injuries and activities. To learn more about crash-related injuries in your community, make an appointment with the medical records department of your local hospital. During this meeting request a compilation of the numbers of patients and their fee charges and payer sources for all motor vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian patients. You do not need names, just totals. These data will indicate costs to treat crash victims in your community. Public health insurance costs, such as Medicaid and Medicare, are borne by all the citizens through higher taxes. The money spent treating unrestrained drivers is astronomical, compared with that of drivers who wear safety belts. These costs, as described in Chapter 3, prove that occupant safety is a public rather than simply a private issue.

Enforcement of applicable state traffic laws is an important component of the Partners for Rural Traffic Safety program. Different states and police departments rely on different data systems to track citations. You should check with each law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction in your community (local police, sheriff and state police) and determine the number of citations and tickets issued to unrestrained riders. These violations include wearing no seat belt, no child safety seat and people riding in the cargo holds of pick-up trucks. Again, these data should be collected from the past several years. Determine if the number is increasing or decreasing.

Chapter 9 of this kit provides the tools and descriptions necessary to conduct a seat belt utilization index (observational survey) for your community. You should conduct this survey at any point before your campaign begins and then immediately following the conclusion of the campaign. The results of your pre-campaign utilization index findings should be presented during this meeting and compared with the state and national use rates as well as to the goals of Presidential Initiative for Increasing Seat Belt Use Nationwide, which is to achieve 90 percent compliance by 2005.

Encourage people to question, debate and discuss the results you obtain. This meeting helps the Community Partner Team build a better understanding of these issues and furthers its members’ commitment to proceeding with an intervention.

The Partners for Rural Traffic Safety pilot communities generated many activities that can be conducted within each of the community sectors represented by the Community Partner Team. All of those activities have been indexed and categorized in the Tools section in Chapter 8 of this kit. Each sector-specific activities menu should be distributed to the proper representatives. Allow the participants to review these materials to get a feel for the wealth and diversity of information, resources and activities that are available to them.

This is a critical juncture in the Partners for Rural Traffic Safety process. The qualitative (value-based) and quantitative (numbers-based) data have been presented and a menu of potential activities has been supplied to the Community Partner Team sector leaders. Between now and the next meeting, each Community Partner Team member has four assignments. Each team member should do the following:

1. Review the activities and resources.


2. Talk with other members of his or her sector, sharing the list of potential activities and seek their input about which ones will work best in your community. People who attended the visioning meeting are likely candidates because they have a vested interest in the project.


3. Review the materials resource lists (see Appendices B, C and E) and make a sector-specific list of materials to be ordered from state or federal agencies.


4. Finally, be prepared to commit to activities during the next meeting.

Discuss with your group how much time they will need to complete the assignments. Momentum is an important factor for group development. You don’t want to allow too much time to lapse between this assignment and the next meeting or you will lose the excitement and feeling of moving forward with appropriate speed. However, you do want to give them enough time to discuss the options with the people in their sectors to see if they will support the campaign. Schedule the planning meeting two to three weeks after this meeting. Your Community Partner Team will let you know how much time they need so try to accommodate that request. If the length of time is one month or longer, the team leader should call on each Community Partner Team member two weeks after this meeting to check in and see how things are going and ask the member if he or she needs help.