Navajo Nation Seat Belt
Community Traffic Safety Program
NAVAJO NATION

PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS   PROGRAM AREA(S)
  Targets Hard-to-Reach/At-risk Population   Occupant Protection
Community Traffic Safety Program
Diversity
 
TYPE OF JURISDICTION
  Navajo Reservation in 3 States
(NM/AZ/UT)
 
TARGETED POPULATION(S) JURISDICTION SIZE
  Native American Population   200,000

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

Prior to passage of a tribal seat belt law in 1988, the Navajo Nation's seat belt usage was only eight percent. Child safety seat usage was zero percent. The tribe's motor vehicle-related hospital discharge rate was 256 per 100,000 population, and its motor vehicle fatality rate was 97 per 100,000 population, five times higher than that of the general U.S. population. Rollovers were a major cause of injuries and deaths, with 12 percent of drivers and passengers on the Navajo Reservation being ejected from their vehicles during crashes.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The goal of the initiative was to increase seat belt use by 10 percentage points per year until 70 percent use was achieved. Objectives included:



STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES

After the Navajo Nation Tribal Council passed a seat belt law in 1988, tribal enforcement and awareness activities began, including:



Navajo Nation Seat Belt/Community Traffic Safety Program (cont'd)

awards, poster contests and media events



RESULTS

By the end of 1995, monthly surveys conducted by the Department of Highway Safety showed seat belt use on the Navajo Reservation to be 78 percent. Child restraint use was 45 percent. Navajo Nation employees operating government vehicles now buckle up 100 percent of the time.

Hospital data collected by the Indian Health Service (IHS) show the Navajo Nation motor vehicle-related hospital discharge rate to have decreased 50 percent since 1988, from 256 per 100,000 population to 127 per 100,000 in 1995. The tribe's motor vehicle-related fatality rate has dropped from 97 per 100,000 in 1988 to 47 per 100,000 in 1994, a 52 percent decline.

In 1996, the fifth year of the Community Traffic Safety Program, the tribe is working toward self-sufficiency of the project. Salary and expenses for three additional technicians and all enforcement efforts in support of the program are now funded by the Navajo Nation. The program works collaboratively with the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety, Department of Law Enforcement, Bureau of Indian Affairs, EMS, Fire Services, Department of Highway Safety, and Indian Health Services.

This project was the recipient of the 1996 NHTSA Administrator's Highway Safety Program of Excellence Award.