PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Staff members from the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration's (NHTSA) Region 8 office utilized the partnership
forged between the Coors Brewing Company in Golden City, Colorado, and
NHTSA's Administrator, Ricardo Martinez to help educate company employees
about the proper use of seat belts and other occupant restraint devices.
A seat belt use survey conducted by NHTSA in 1997 at the Coors plant
in Golden City indicated that only 33 percent of company drivers used
seat belts while operating company vehicles, even though the speed limit
was 55 miles per hour in some areas of the plant. However, a 68 percent
seat belt general use rate was observed for employees operating their
personal vehicles. In an effort to increase employee seat belt use,
the Coors Risk Management division teamed with NHTSA in 1998 to promote
the Buckle Up America! campaign.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The primary goal of the
Coors Brewing Company Joins the Buckle Up America! Campaign effort
is to reduce deaths and injuries from motor vehicle crashes among Coors
employees. To reach this goal, Coors officials and NHTSA Region 8 staff
members sought to:
- Expand the existing child
safety seat program to include instruction on proper use of the seats
- Train security, health
and safety employees to provide ongoing comprehensive instruction
to employees on the use of child safety seats
- Provide Coors security
staff with written information on seat belts and child safety seats
for inclusion in the company newsletter
STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES
Although Coors had a child safety seat program
currently in place in 1998, it was incomplete. Using the Buckle Up
America! campaign structure, company officials tailored an educational
employee safety program to reduce injuries and increase the use of occupant
protection devices for all employees and their families. In conjunction
with the Colorado Office of Highway Safety, NHTSA personnel met with
Coors employees to present comprehensive information on the proper use
of the child safety seats provided to them through the existing company-wide
distribution program. Security, health and safety employees were then
given a more extensive training session, to allow them to provide proper
instructions when issuing the safety seats.
Buckle Up America! materials including posters,
brochures, newsletters and flyers were posted throughout the Coors plant,
and Buckle Up America! stickers were placed on the company's
commercial trucks.
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