Local Notes

Volume 3, Number 5 - August 2000

• The Portland Safe Communities Coalition focuses on preventing traffic injuries in the East End of Maine's largest city. A joint effort of Portland Public Health, the Munjoy Hill Neighborhood Organization, the local Community Policing Center, and the East End Coalition, (collection of social service agencies), Portland Safe Communities has taken a special interest in protecting the children who travel to and from the neighborhood's two elementary schools. The coalition put together a task force of educators, citizens, and representatives from the city government to survey the routes used by children to travel to the Adams and Jack Elementary schools. Based on this survey, the coalition implemented a comprehensive plan to improve the safety of children during their school commute. In addition to fencing off a dangerous path across an undeveloped and overgrown area adjacent to the Jack Elementary School, Portland Safe Communities worked with the school department, the city government, the police, and the neighborhood association to establish safe walking routes to all the neighborhood's schools. The routes were designed to allow children to cross streets at controlled intersections at which crossing guards were present. The routes will also receive priority snow removal, helping preserve the safety of students and staff traveling to school by bus or car, as well as improving the ability of young pedestrians and motor vehicle drivers to see one another during the winter months.

  For more information, contact Maureen Clancy at (207) 874-8774.

• The Lincoln-Lancaster County (Nebraska) Health Department Traffic Safety Program, the School Traffic Education and Enforcement Program, and Lincoln-Lancaster County Safe Communities have come together to reduce the number of pedestrian injuries among the county's rapidly growing Hispanic population. Three elementary schools with a significant proportion of Hispanic students conducted observational surveys on pedestrian safety in the neighborhoods around the schools. Interventions based on the data gathered in these surveys included multilingual educational materials for parents, peer education activities, and the creation of pedestrian safety videos in both English and Spanish. Pedestrian safety resource packets were distributed to all 50 public and parochial schools in the county. The program also developed a website that allows the public to report unsafe behaviors of students or motorists around schools, as well as traffic safety assessments to evaluate the safety habits of both young pedestrians and motorists in the vicinity of the schools.

  For more information, contact Shannon Fiene Dennis at (402) 441-8000.

• Providence (Rhode Island) Safe Communities Annual Safety Day included an all-day safety festival with interactive stations where parents, teenagers, and children could learn and demonstrate skills related to pedestrian safety, bicycle helmet use, fire, firearm safety, and stranger safety. Children who completed all safety stations were eligible for prizes. A Spanish-language interpreter was available at the festival, which included a bicycle repair clinic, and a passenger safety clinic. More than 500 bicycle helmets were given away to low-income children who could demonstrate safe bicycling skills. The event was attended by more than 1,000 community members. Sponsors included the Region I NHTSA Office, the Coast Guard, the Federal Aviation Administration, WPRO-FM, and Hasbro Children's Hospital.

  For more information, contact Dr. Scott Berns by telephone at (401) 444-6684 or by e-mail at sberns@lifespan.org.

• In celebration of May's Buckle Up America Week, Florida Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) members participated in a Battle of the Belts campaign to increase safety belt usage rates on high school campuses across the state. Progressive Insurance provided cash awards to the SADD chapters in each county with the highest usage rates, as well as an award to the overall state winner. Each chapter conducted a pre-survey in its high school parking lot and then implemented a school safety belt awareness campaign, which included video public service announcements and mock crash events. A post-survey was conducted to evaluate the campaign's effectiveness. On the average, seat belt usage rates increased 20 percent between the pre- and post-campaign surveys.

  For more information, contact Terry Henry, Buckle Up Florida, by telephone at (850) 473-7071 or by e-mail at thenry@uwf.edu.

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