The education community plays a major role in reaching school aged students, from elementary school through college, about alcohol, impaired driving, and other traffic safety issues. Because traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for young people in the United States, schools and college campuses serve as perfect outlets for reaching these age groups with traffic safety messages. As school administrators, teachers, and students, you not only have the capability to influence the lives of the students within your institutions but also the lives of the people within your community. Consider the following ideas as you begin planning 3D Prevention Month and year-round events to build and strengthen your community as a safe community.

Ideas for 3D Prevention Month Activities

Help organize a mock crash by working with emergency medical services, medical personnel, local law enforcement, your school’s Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) chapter, media, state highway safety office, and other safety organizations. To supplement the mock crash, obtain a seat belt convincer so students will have the opportunity to see the safety benefits of seat belts.

Sponsor a holiday ornament fundraising campaign for your community. Have a contest to determine the design and anti-impaired driving holiday slogan for the ornament. The proceeds from the campaign could go to support traffic safety programs.

Coordinate with local business to support their “Santa” promotions. Student and adult volunteers could pass out buttons with an anti-impaired driving message and could give stickers with a safety belt message to children.

Bring in a motivational speaker to talk to students about having a fun holiday season without alcohol. Alternative speakers might include an impaired driver that killed or injured someone or a victim who was injured by an impaired driver during the month of December. A resource for locating a speaker is your local Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) chapter or Brain Injury Association.

Take students on a tour of a trauma center or emergency department to observe the reality faced by crash victims and the medical professionals who must care for them.

Year-Round Activities

Incorporate traffic safety issues into science classes. Study the effects of alcohol, learn about the dynamics of a crash, or demonstrate the effects of speed on crashes and stopping time.

Hold a summit on campus alcohol issues. Convene college and university presidents to discuss the problem of youth access to alcohol and to develop solutions to reduce access and consumption. For more information on setting up a campus summit or campus programs, contact Drew Hunter at BACCHUS and GAMMA Peer Education Network, (303) 871-0910 or by e-mail (dhunter@du.edu).

Help school clubs and safety groups (drama club, varsity club, SADD, Future Homemakers of America) work together to organize a community program on alcohol and impaired driving awareness.

Display the Traffic Safety Box (TSB) at your school. The TSB is an interactive computerized traffic safety education program created for pre-drivers and drivers (middle school- and high school-aged students). The TSB uses familiar clips from feature films, colorful animation, and music to communicate to and educate teenagers about driving, riding, and other traffic safety issues. For more information on how to showcase the TSB at your school, contact the SADD National Headquarters, Marlborough, Massachusetts, (508) 481-3568.

Successful Program: Lapeer County, Michigan

Following is an example of how community partners made a difference in Lapeer County, Michigan. The program reduced the county’s alcohol-related crashes by 50 percent, decreased youth alcohol use by almost 20 percent, and had no youth alcohol violations at parties or youth alcohol-related fatalities during the 1995 graduation season.

Problem Identification

• The alcohol use and crash data reflected an impaired driving problem with the underage population.

Goal of Project

• To make county residents (both adults and youth) more aware that alcohol use was on the rise and that young people were drinking.

Partners

• A steering committee was formed that was made up of representatives from coalitions from each school district that included law enforcement officers, prosecutors, judges, parents, clergy, school representatives, and community leaders.

Program

• The program was called Alcohol In Schools Is Stupid (AISIS). The approach was three-pronged and included law enforcement activities, educational presentations, and community activities.

Enforcement Activities

• More citations were written for “minors in possession.”

• Alcohol stings were conducted.

• Students from SADD chapters in the high schools worked with law enforcement in the stings to attempt to buy alcohol from local establishments.

Educational Activities

• Steering committee members were trained by recognized experts in alcohol-related programs, community intervention, and parenting skills.

• Steering committee members used their new knowledge to educate coalition members, youth, school faculty, and parents.

Community Activities

• A parent support group was initiated offering a safe-home alternative for youth parties. A safe house phone directory listing parents who had pledged to hold chaperoned parties that were drug-, tobacco- and alcohol-free was published in each school district.

The county received extensive media coverage and publicized the program with articles on the alcohol stings and school programs. The program continues, has become part of the county’s substance abuse agency, and is now called the Any Illegal Substance Is Silly program.

For more information on this program, contact Deborah Savage, Michigan Office of Highway Safety Programs at (517) 333-5324.

Successful Program: Corsicana, Texas

The Corsicana (Texas) Independent School District turned impaired driving education into a spirited contest among the students. The Chain of Life project set up an informational booth in the cafeteria, where volunteers sold paper strips in holiday colors. Students from each lunch group purchased strips and joined them to create long paper chains in memory of impaired driving victims. A pizza party was awarded to the group with the longest chain. The money was funneled back into the Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) program. Corsicana also created a “Tree of Life” to remember friends and family during the holidays. Students were given paper ornaments to inscribe and hang on a large holiday tree.

For more information, contact:

Judy Rogers

Corsicana Independent School District

601 North 13th Street

Corsicana, TX 75110

(903) 872-8488