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| Success Stories
Helping Motorcyclists to Keep it Legal It’s only common sense that properly licensed motor-cyclists tend to be better trained, more skilled and more experienced than their unlicensed counterparts. A properly licensed motorcyclist has passed skill and knowledge tests. So it's no surprise that unlicensed motorcycle riders are over represented in fatal motorcycle crashes. In many states, motorcyclist testing is offered on a limited basis, preventing people who cannot meet the testing schedule from becoming legally licensed motorcycle operators. The Enhanced Motorcycle Licensing Project, a program launched by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety in 1994, sought to correct this and other factors in an attempt to improve motorcycle operator licensing. The project, made possible by a grant from NHTSA, includes three basic tasks:
Post-test surveys of the applicants revealed that the project was a success: 81 percent of the men and 91 percent of the women who applied said that the extended evening hours were an important factor to them in taking the skills test. More than 30 percent of all applicants said that they would not have taken the test without the evening hours. For more information, visit the Minnesota Motorcycle Safety Center’s web site at www.motorcyclesafety.org or contact:
Bike Safety from an 8-foot Bird Capturing a child’s attention for a safety message is a challenge, but the Seagate Chapter of the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) is doing a memorable job. Muddy, the mascot of the Toledo (OH) Mud Hens, delivers safety messages to the young audience at minor league baseball games with games and giveaways. The ENA Seagate Chapter pooled resources with the Greater Toledo (OH) SAFE KIDS Coalition and harnessed the charisma of Muddy, the eight-foot tall Mud Hen. Together they presented bike rodeos, helmet fitting-clinics, and bike and bike helmet raffles at Mud Hen games. ENA and NHTSA hope that by making safe biking practices popular at such an early age, these children will keep safe riding habits for a lifetime. So far, the program is working. Kids in and around Toledo are now proudly sporting “HELMET HEAD” and “CYCLE SMART” reflectors on their bikes, and lecturing each other on wearing helmets.
Adapting Pedestrian Safety to a Changing Community In Alisal, a primarily Hispanic community in Salinas, California, a successful violence prevention program resulted in many residents spending more time outside. Unfortunately, one side effect of this success was an increase in pedestrian injuries. The Safe Communities Committee sprung into action to make sure that the growing pedestrian population was safe and used existing coalition resources and symbols to deliver safety messages. The committee tailored its work to this particular community. Its members gathered door-to-door surveys to determine residents’ concerns and immediately pinpointed the areas with severe problems. Then, with a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, the committee created an action plan centered around a major street that was a concern to residents. The improved pedestrian community has features like “no parking” zones and better crosswalks, as well as a number of elements to make school-aged pedestrians safer. The committee created safe routes to school and marked them with painted “peace feet” on the sidewalks. They also created a bilingual “Peace Feet Are Safe Feet” coloring book with pedestrian safety messages in English and Spanish.
Clearwater Cracks Down on Passing Stopped School Buses Motorists passing stopped school buses in Florida are a chronic and under-reported problem. The problem got widespread attention in 1992 after a child was struck and killed by a motorist who failed to stop for a school bus, and a 1995 study documented more than 10,000 illegal bus passes in a one-day period throughout the state. In 1998, the City of Clearwater Police Department received a NHTSA demo grant and - in partnership with the Pinellas Country Community Traffic Safety Team - launched an aggressive enforcement and public information and education campaign to address the problem. Extra patrol officers were deployed during school transportation hours, and speed enforcement operations were conducted in the area of the bus stops and school zones. School bus drivers themselves had the ability to report passing violations, but only 11 percent of bus drivers were making such reports at the start of the project. During the 15-month program, officers not only caught offenders, they also briefed bus drivers on the problem and encouraged them to report offenders that they spotted in the future. As a result, the number of incidents reported by bus drivers increased dramatically. The Clearwater Police Department worked with the Florida Department of Education (DOE) to publicize their efforts and to establish a school bus pass report tip line. Volunteers helped create a database of offenders and sent them “tip cards” describing the dangers of passing school buses stopped to load or unload children. The “tip cards,” formatted as bookmarks, were also distributed to drivers at local car washes and bookstores, and were mailed with other traffic citations. They also reached the general public through posters, a video on a cable access channel, public service ads on monitors in convenience stores, an article in the city magazine, and ads on the Walt Disney Corporation’s AM radio station. Officers also took their message directly to residents of affected areas by making presentations at neighborhood meetings, and using a robotic “Barney the School Bus” with working traffic control devices at mall demonstrations. As a result of the Campaign to reduce illegal passing of school buses, the Department’s citations for this violation increased dramatically, from 36 in 1997 to 49 in just the last three months of 1998, when the program was launched, to 358 during calendar year 1999.
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