REGIONS 5 and 7
Intergovernmental Partnerships—NHTSA,
EPA and DOA

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
In 1999, the Region 5 Office of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), serving Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin, formed a partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to promote the Buckle Up America! campaign in all of its offices. Buckle Up America! is a national program to save lives and prevent injuries by encouraging the use of seat belts and child safety seats. NHTSA's Region 7 office, serving Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, entered into a similar partnership with the Department of Agriculture (DOA).

Injuries are the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 45, and motor vehicle crashes are responsible for the largest proportion of injuries. These Federal agencies sought to combine their efforts to increase awareness of our nation's injury problem.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The primary goal of the partnerships formed between NHTSA, EPA and DOA is to reduce the number of deaths and injuries on our nation's highways. To achieve these goals, the agencies collaborated to:

• Set a good example by increasing seat belt and child safety seat use among Federal employees
• Provide traffic safety training to EPA and DOA staff
• Offer incentives to employees observed wearing seat belts in observational surveys
• Generate goodwill between the participating Federal agencies

STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES
NHTSA Region 5 representatives provided the traffic safety portion of EPA's annual safety training. Motor vehicle injury prevention was the key topic at the training event. Five individual training sessions were conducted, covering the following topics:

• The Buckle Up America! campaign—encouraging public-private partnerships, educating the public about seat belt use, strengthening occupant protection laws and actively enforcing existing laws
• Viewing collisions as preventable "crashes", not accidents
• Aggressive drivers—how to avoid them, and how to positively influence their behavior
• Air bag safety, seat belt use and child safety seat use; slide presentations of unbelted crash victims were shown to emphasize the importance of seat belt use

NHTSA Region 7 representatives provided similar training presentations at three DOA sites in the Kansas City area.

RESULTS
A total of 250 EPA employees participated in the annual safety training provided by NHTSA. Course evaluations reflected the success of the presentations, with many employees distributing Buckle Up America! brochures and air bag safety sheets to local civic organizations and community leaders.

A total of 200 DOA employees attended the safety presentations in the Kansas City area. DOA officials will conduct on-site seat belt surveys during 1999, and provide incentives to employees who buckle up.

SUMMER 1999