PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Observational surveys
conducted in 1998 in Sedgwick County, Kansas, indicated that the child
safety seat use rate for motorists transporting children was unacceptably
low. County child safety seat use rates paralleled the use rates statewide,
revealing that only 80 percent of children under the age of four and
59 percent of children over the age of four were properly restrained
in safety seats or seat belts. Moreover, local data suggested that as
many as 99.5 percent of motorists who used child safety seats had installed
them incorrectly.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The goal of the Sedgwick
County Safe Communities project, initiated in 1997, is to increase proper
child safety seat use countywide. Objectives of the project, designed
to meet the goal of this occupant protection effort, are to:
- Increase correct occupant
restraint use by children aged 13 and under by 5 percent within one
year
- Increase proper restraint
use by children with special needs in Sedgwick County
- Provide child passenger
safety training for law enforcement officers, emergency medical services
personnel, and health care providers
STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES
Using the
Safe Communities concept as a vehicle, county and program officials
formed a coalition, and developed a series of activities aimed at reaching
their child restraint use goals and objectives. Activities included:
- Conducting
an in-depth assessment of current child safety prevention programs
and activities
- Developing
a loaner program (based on information collected from the assessment),
which provided safety seats for children with special needs
- Conducting
a series of child safety seat check-up events throughout the community
- Providing
child safety seat training and education to health care workers, police
and fire department personnel, automobile dealership employees and
other interested Sedgwick County residents
- Involving
the local media in a campaign to increase child passenger safety
- Launching
a hotline to provide the public with access to information about child
passenger safety. Callers receive details on safety checkpoints and
can arrange for a "personal fit" appointment through the hotline
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