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PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Automobile crashes
are the most common cause of preventable childhood injuries and
fatalities—preventable because proper use of child safety
seats reduces crash-related injuries and fatalities by 60 percent
in the age group birth to 4 years old. National studies conducted
in 1994 revealed that, although 87.2 percent of the children
observed in the studies had been placed in child safety seats,
the frequency of proper use was only 20.5 percent.
The State of Ohio
has enacted a primary child occupant protection law which addresses
both the use and proper use of child restraints. The law has
been instrumental in increasing the use of child safety restraints
and decreasing injuries to children involved in vehicle crashes.
However, in recent studies conducted in Cuyahoga County, proper
child safety seat use was only 20 percent.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The goal of the
Primary Safety Seat Program was to reduce motor vehicle crash-related
injuries and fatalities occurring to children. Objectives of
the program included:
- Increasing use
and improving proper use of child safety seats
- Providing community
education on Ohio's child occupant protection laws
- Evaluating the
effectiveness of various occupant protection interventions
STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES
In July 1997, the
Rainbow Pediatric Trauma Center at Rainbow Babies and Children's
Hospital formed a partnership with the City of Euclid Police
Department to develop a program that would promote compliance
with Ohio's primary child occupant protection law.
Three occupant protection
intervention activities, tested in the City of Euclid during
a three- month period, were instrumental in the success of the
Primary Safety Seat Program:
- Officer Training:
Participating officers from the Euclid Police Department attended
a 75-minute training course outlining the details of Ohio's primary
child occupant protection law. Officers selected to participate
in the public awareness campaign received 45 minutes of additional
training
- Targeted Enforcement:
Uniformed officers, organized as roving patrols, detained vehicles
with children passengers. The officers verified the proper use
of occupant protection devices, using the one-minute safety checklist
learned in the officer training course. Violators of Ohio's occupant
protection laws were issued citations
- Public Awareness:
At two grocery stores in a subdivision of Euclid, occupant protection
information and child safety seat demonstration announcements
were placed in the grocery bags of customers. Display boards
in each store informed customers about traffic safety, provided
information about Ohio's occupant protection laws, and advertised
four one-hour safety seat demonstrations to be conducted at the
stores
For study purposes,
Euclid was divided into two sections. In one section of the city,
only targeted enforcement was conducted; in the other section,
targeted enforcement was conducted following the public awareness
campaign. |
