<<DATE>>

CONTACT: <<SPOKESPERSON>>
	 <<LOCATION>>
	 <<TELEPHONE>>

Local Community Project includes 30 Days of Activities and Events to Educate Local Residents on Traffic Safety Issues to Increase Seat Belt and Proper Child Safety Seat Use

<<CITY, STATE>>-A team of local volunteers will kick off a project to educate area residents on the importance of seat belt usage and proper installation and use of infant and child safety seats on <<MONTH, DATE, YEAR>>. This 30-day campaign is part of a national rural traffic safety effort, Partners for Rural Traffic Safety, a community involvement project being conducted by the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) in cooperation with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Locally, the project is being conducted by a Community Partner Team that comprises six representatives from the health, law enforcement, business, educational, religious and community-at-large sectors within our community who will work together on this effort. "We wanted <<COMMUNITY>> to be part of this project because we realized that our community has a potential health care problem due to low usage of seat belts and other safety restraints by area residents," <<NAME (team leader)>> said. "This 30-day campaign of educational and other events along with strong enforcement of state occupant safety laws is planned to increase the usage of vehicle occupant safety devices to reduce the number of injuries and deaths occurring in our community that are due to not using or improper use of safety restraint devices."

The campaign, which kicks off on <<DATE CAMPAIGN STARTS>> and continues though <<DATE CAMPAIGN ENDS>>, will feature events and educational projects throughout the community. Among those included are:

• <<LIST KEY EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES>>
• <<ACTIVITY>>
• <<ACTIVITY>>

The <<COMMUNITY>> Partners for Rural Traffic Safety Community Partner Team, which is spearheading the project includes <<NAME, HEALTH AGENCY>>, representing the health care community segment; <<NAME, LAW AGENCY>>, representing the law enforcement segment; <<NAME, BUSINESS>>, representing local businesses; <<NAME, SCHOOL>>, representing education; <<NAME, RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION>>, representing the places of worship community; and <<NAME>>, representing community residents at large.

Other area residents who are volunteering their time and energy to conduct this 30-day campaign are: <<LIST ALL VOLUNTEERS HERE>>

Partners for Rural Traffic Safety is a project of the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) in cooperation with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that supports the national presidential initiative, Buckle Up America! Headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., with a government affairs office in Washington, D.C., the NRHA is a nonprofit association composed of individual and organizational members who share a common interest in rural health. Its primary mission is to provide leadership for improving the health and health care of rural Americans through education, communications, research and advocacy. For further information about the NRHA, visit the association's World Wide Web site at http://www.NRHArural.org.

• Health Care Sector Project Planner—This planner will help the health care representative on the Community Partner Team plan activities and distribute information through the health care facilities and providers in your community. This segment is particularly important in promoting use of seat belts and other vehicle safety devices, as well as enforcement of laws requiring their use, as a preventive injury strategy and a way to reduce health care costs in the community.
• Law Enforcement Sector Project Planner—Law enforcement is a key component of the Partners for Rural Traffic Safety Project. This component also features ideas, tips and materials to help the law enforcement representative communicate the importance of vehicle occupant safety laws and their enforcement to prevent injury and deaths in rural areas.
• Business Sector Project Planner—This component features educational materials and ideas to help the business representative on the Community Partner Team educate community residents on the importance of using seat belts and other vehicle safety devices.
• Education Sector Project Planner—A proven method for seat belt compliance is teaching youths about their proper use and injury prevention capability before they learn to drive. Additionally, take home projects geared toward school children and teenagers is a proven method for educating and involving parents in traffic safety.
• Places of Worship Sector Project Planner—Every community features a number of places of worship that often form the heart of a community and its residents. To omit this group in planning a community project would be a tremendous lost opportunity. Community residents look up to their spiritual leaders for guidance in many ways. The Places of Worship Sector Project Planner will provide this Community Team Representative with ideas, materials and resources to promote traffic safety and the positive aspects of law enforcement of applicable laws to your community’s residents.
• Community Resident Sector Project Planner—This representative serves as the shortstop for the Community Partner Team by focusing on groups that may not fit into the areas covered by other team representatives, such as day care facilities for child safety seat education for parents, the elderly and others. Additionally, this person can spearhead efforts in locations in the community that do not fit into the other project segments. For example, this representative can coordinate street drives to hand out educational fliers, head up the index team to survey seat belt use in your community, and the like. This planner includes ideas and tips to make this an effective component of the project, and resources to draw upon for ideas and information.

Each of these planners is designed to help mobilize key segments of your community’s population to develop as comprehensive a traffic safety and law enforcement program as possible. The end result to your team’s hard work and effort in this project will be fewer injuries and deaths due to traffic accidents in your community, thereby creating a healthier and safer community for its residents.

Listed below are ideas and tips that will help get you started in planning activities to promote rural traffic occupant safety, seat belt usage and child vehicle safety within your community, as well as the importance of enforcing traffic occupant safety laws as a means to prevent injuries that may result in long-term health problems and deaths.

• Place rural traffic fact sheets and fliers about the importance of using safety restraints and the costs they save the community in health care services in patient waiting areas.
• Discuss the importance of wearing seat belts with patients.
• Write editorials and letters to the editor to the local newspaper on traffic safety and the importance of strong enforcement of vehicle occupant safety laws, as well as on the health care costs that using safety restraints save the community.
• Distribute information about infant and young child car safety seat installation and proper usage, as well as child air bag safety, to parents of infants and children.
• Distribute preprinted “prescriptions” to all patients instructing them to wear their seat belts. Also, clip them on patient charts to remind other health care workers to remind patients to wear their seat belts.
• Have community health care providers ask patients if they are using their seat belts during routine checkups and other office calls.
• Coordinate a community health fair that includes information on seat belt use and child safety seat use and installation.
• Include traffic safety restraint information and child safety seat use and installation information in health care facility newsletter; discuss why they are public health issues and why enforcement of applicable laws is important.
• Show expectant parents and parents with new infants a video on the correct installation and usage of infant safety seats and restraints. Remind them to always install such devices in the back seat to prevent air bag injuries and deaths.
• Host an event to check for proper installation of infant and child safety seats.
• Connect the health care element of traffic safety to the education component by providers making a presentation at school assemblies.
• Hang traffic safety posters in patient waiting areas.

Listed below are ideas and tips that will help get you started in planning activities to promote rural traffic occupant safety, seat belt usage and child vehicle safety within your community, as well as the importance of enforcing traffic occupant safety laws as a means to prevent injuries that may result in long-term health problems and deaths.

• Step up enforcement of occupant safety laws.
• Stop and distribute incentives and awards to those drivers and their passengers who are wearing safety restraints. Such incentives and awards could include coupons for a free drink or food item at a local restaurant or fast-food establishment, discount coupons for local businesses, etc.
• Conduct traffic safety and child restraint spot checks weekly during the campaign; distribute local traffic fact sheets, premiums for wearing seat belts, etc.
• Distribute pre-printed “warning tickets” to drivers and their passengers who are not wearing safety restraints with a “buckle up” message and relevant traffic injury statistics printed on the reverse.
• Conduct presentations focusing on traffic safety and the importance of enforcing occupant safety laws in schools, as well as area community organization meetings (Lion’s Club, Parent/Teachers Association, 4-H, etc.). Create a talking point tip sheet for law enforcement personnel to use when making such presentations.
• Distribute incentives with traffic safety messages, including key rings or pencils imprinted with “buckle up” messages and the like.
• Coordinate a traffic safety demonstration utilizing Vince and Larry©, or the “Convincer”, during a community event or campaign kick-off event.
• Coordinate the display of a wrecked car in which the occupants survived because they were properly restrained during a community event or campaign kick-off event.
• Encourage local judges to enforce citations given for lack of seat belt use.
• Develop and conduct a traffic safety course that offenders can attend in lieu of paying a fine for a traffic safety restraint citation.
• Law enforcement personnel set a positive example by always wearing seat belts, both while at work and when driving personal vehicles.
• Announce increased enforcement of safety restraint laws at the end of the 30-day campaign.