Educating The Public Through Partnerships

The success of the Buckle Up America campaign has depended on the hard work and dedication of hundreds of partners in both the government and the private sector. The following are just some of the highlights of the outreach activities conducted by our many partners. This section is by no means a complete listing of all the organizations that have played an important role in the far-reaching impact of this campaign.

Federal Initiatives
NHTSA works with agencies outside the U.S. Department of Transportation, along with those within the Department, to promote the Buckle Up America campaign. These agencies use internal and external communications channels—newsletters, Web postings, e-mails, posters, and signs—to deliver messages to their employees and customers about safety belt and child safety seat use. Highlights of some of the activities that agencies within the U.S. Department of Transportation have undertaken are presented below. These highlights are followed by samples of support undertaken by other Federal agencies.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Intermodal Support for the
Buckle Up America Campaign
A department-wide Intermodal Safety Belt Team facilitates communication about the Buckle Up America campaign to promote the use of safety belts among all Department employees and their customers. Throughout the year, the team promoted Buckle Up America Week and the Click It or Ticket campaigns, the BUA planner, and the BUA Web site. The following highlights provide examples of the types of activities undertaken.

• In preparation for BUA Week/CIOT and the July 4th Impaired Driving mobilization, messages were included on earnings and leave statements, 10 different messages were displayed on closed-circuit TV in the Headquarters building, articles were printed in NHTSA Now, and BUA graphics for the headquarters electronic message boards were displayed.
  
  
• The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) sent an e-mail message about BUA Week to all OIG employees. The message, which emphasized the Click It or Ticket campaign, was also posted on the OIG intranet site.
  
  
• NHTSA staff participated in the implementation of a DOT Worklife Wellness Health Fair held at the Headquarters’ plaza. They conducted demonstrations on the correct use of child safety seats and hosted a traffic safety information exhibit. DOT employees asked questions about car seat safety; parents and grandparents took home games on traffic safety for children; and cyclists and motorcyclists picked up safety information. NHTSA Region III facilitated participation by the Washington, DC, Metro Police Department which helped answer questions about safety belt use and child passenger safety.
  
  
• Representatives from NHTSA, NTSB, and Health and Human Services jointly chair a Low-income Child Passenger Safety Working Group. The group includes representatives from the Indian Health Service, Agency for Families and Children, Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services, CDC, and others.
  
  
• The group developed an action plan on child passenger safety for the President’s Task Force on Protecting Children from Environmental and Health Safety Risks. NHTSA staff participated at the Senior Staff Planning Committee of the Task Force to present the plan.

Additional Federal Agencies Supporting the Buckle Up America Campaign
NHTSA continues to work with Federal agencies in addition to the Department of Transportation to promote the Buckle Up America campaign. The following agencies continued to support the campaign during 2002:

Department of Defense (DOD)—DOD continues to work with NHTSA on all aspects of motor vehicle safety. DOD safety office distributed information about BUA Week and Click It or Ticket to the safety offices of each branch of the military.

Department of Labor (DOL)—DOL set up a BUA Week display in its Headquarters lobby.

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)—At the request of HUD Secretary Martinez, NHTSA staff conducted a child passenger safety presentation and exhibited materials at HUD’s 4th National Conference on Resident Involvement in Crime Prevention in San Francisco, California. (This request stemmed from the need to educate residents in public housing about child passenger safety.)

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)—OSHA began working with NHTSA on the development of a model safety belt program for businesses. NHTSA provided OSHA staff with an overview of CIOT, a safety belt fact sheet, sample safety belt policy, employer checklist for traffic safety, sample employer materials, and information about NETS. As part of the program, OSHA plans to establish a link to the NHTSA web site, co-publish employer traffic safety materials, and post these materials and other information about key traffic safety initiatives on the OSHA web site.

Also participating:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Central Intelligence Agency
• Department of Health and Human Services
• Department of the Air Force
• Department of the Army
• Department of Labor
• Department of the Navy
• Department of State
• Department of Veterans Affairs
• Export-Import Bank
• Indian Health Service
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission
• Office of Personnel Management
• Smithsonian Institution
• Social Security Administration
• Tennessee Valley Authority
• The Undersecretary of Defense
• United States Marine Corps
• United States Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home
• United States Agency for International Development