Traffic Tech #249: 1999 Safe Communities Demonstration Sites Report To Congress On Progress |
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Each year, one in every four Americans have an injury serious enough to require medical attention, and deaths and injuries from motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death from age 5 to 29. A Safe Community addresses the injuries that occur within that community, with traffic positioned within this overall context. From a handful of Safe Communities in 1996, the overall Safe Communities program has grown to 1089 in June 2001. The defining characteristics of a Safe Community are:
To measure the effectiveness of the Safe Communities model, demonstration and evaluation projects were awarded to the Greater Dallas Medical Center in Dallas, Texas and to East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina in 1997. The next year, awards were made to two more sites: Providence Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska and to Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. The model had each community spend the first year in a planning phase, during which it collected and analyzed data, convened a coalition, prioritized the injury problems identified, and selected countermeasures. The second year was spent implementing the countermeasures, and the third year evaluating ongoing progress.
This report to Congress documents the activities of the four sites and evaluates the Safe Communities Model. It describes how each site formed its partnerships, how they gathered data to define their injury problems and addressed the problems, and the results they had achieved through the end of 1999.
Anchorage, Alaska
Providence Medical Center is the lead organization for this program, which started as a handful of concerned citizens who wanted to work on the injury problem in Anchorage (population 259,000). In 1997, the coalition received a Safe Communities Demonstration Grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) which enabled the group to expand its activity to a much higher level and attracted additional funding from other sources as well. They emphasized pedestrian safety, impaired driving, teen driving, child safety seats, and seat belts.
Results
Pitt County, North Carolina
The Pitt Initiative for Safe Communities Evolving Successfully (PISCES) is comprised of about 60 organizations and concerned citizens, including health care professionals, local government representatives, law enforcement, human services, and business representatives. Pitt County's emphasis is on traffic safety in a rural area (population 120,000). Because there already were significant efforts underway to prevent motor vehicle crash injuries in the county by law enforcement and others, the coalition chose to focus its efforts in two areas: bicycle safety and driver improvement.
Results
Providence, Rhode Island
The Providence Safe Communities Partnership (PSCP) became a Safe Communities Demonstration Program in 1996. They focus on reducing traffic-related injury through research, education, and community outreach. The project is led by two hospitals (Rhode Island Hospital/Hasbro Children's Hospital), and a coord-inating committee representing the Providence Fire and Police Departments, the Mayor's Office, the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, the Rhode Island Department of Health, the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, the Providence School Department and a local community center. Their area is the Enterprise Community, which has a population of about 49,000, and is a culturally diverse, low-income area.
Results
Dallas, Texas
The Northwest Oak Cliff Demonstration Project is sponsored by the Greater Dallas Injury Prevention Center, which serves a population of more than 2.1 million people. In 1996, it became the first U.S. site to be certified by the World Health Organization as a Safe Community by international standards. They focus on Northwest Oak Cliff, a mostly Hispanic community of about 110,000. The program works through neighborhood groups (Los Altos Neighborhood, Calumet Moms, Las Haciendas, and Arcadia Park). They set up child safety seat loaner programs and focused on seat belts.
Results
The Report to Congress describes the status of the Safe Communities Program, case studies of exemplary Safe Communities, and results from the four demonstration sites through 1999.
HOW TO ORDER
For a copy of Safe Communities 1999, Report to Congress, (28 pages) compiled by Preusser Research Group from Demonstration site reports, write to the Office of Research and Traffic Records, NHTSA, NTS-31, 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Washington, DC 20590 or send a fax to (202) 366-7096. Linda Cosgrove, Ph.D. was the contract manager.
U.S. Department
of Transportation
National Highway
Traffic Safety
Administration
400 Seventh Street, S.W. NTS-31
Washington, DC 20590
Traffic Tech is a publication to disseminate information about traffic safety programs, including evaluations, innovative programs, and new publications. Feel free to copy it as you wish.
If you would like to receive a copy contact:
Linda Cosgrove, Ph.D., Editor, Evaluation Staff
Traffic Safety Programs
(202) 366-2759, fax (202) 366-7096
E-MAIL: lcosgrove@nhtsa.dot.gov