COLORADO
Coors Brewing Company Joins the Buckle Up America! Campaign

 

PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS PROGRAM AREA(S)
  Easy to replicate
Targets hard-to-reach/at risk population
  Occupant Protection
       
TYPE OF JURISDICTION    
  City    
       
TARGETED POPULATION(S) JURISDICTION SIZE
  Coors Employees   15,259


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.


RESULTS
All employees of the Coors Brewing Company have received information on the proper use of safety belts and child safety seats. A formal employee education program is currently being developed, and a follow-up seat belt use survey will be conducted in 1999.

 

FUNDING
  Private: $25,000
CONTACT  
 

John Balser
Regional Program Manager
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
555 Zang Street, #430
Lakewood, CO 80228
(303) 969–6919


NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION

SPRING 1999