by Larry Emig
National fatality data from 1995 to 2000 indicated that over
250,000 fatalities occurred or an average of approximately 41,500 each year,
over 113 per day and nearly one every 13 minutes Kansas experienced 2,907
deaths during this period. These fatalities in many cases resulted from unsafe
driving habits.
Many federal and state programs have been effective educating drivers
with safe driving practices however, for many years it has seemed to me that a
“focus event” was needed to promote safe driving habits which would aid in reversing
the number of annual fatalities
In the early 1990s I was at a breakfast meeting with a friend, Mel
Larson, in Washington, D.C We were discussing safety issues and causes of
accidents when we agreed that the over 41,500 annual vehicle deaths were far too
many and a program was needed to reverse this trend We discussed having a “death
free day” or a program similar to the “Great American Smokeout.” This discussion
was never erased from my mind.
I also never forgot the tragic automobile death of a high
school friend in a roll-over accident, or the story of my college friend who
followed an emergency vehicle on his way home for Thanksgiving The emergency
vehicle turned out to be traveling to an accident where his brother had been
killed from crashing into a culvert’s concrete guardrail.
These events, along with accidents which seatbelts saved the lives
of my kids while in their teens and early 20s, added to my belief that a focus
event to change driving habits was needed.
In late 2000, while an officer of the National Society of
Professional Engineers (NSPE) I introduced the need for a “Death Free Day”
driver safety program with a concept similar to “Great American Smokeout.”
After much discussion it was approved, and the program’s name became “Put the
Brakes on Fatalities Day” and October 10, the official day. Improving the safety
of three elements--the roadway, the driver and the vehicle--were and continue
to be the emphasis of the program for reducing fatalities.
A national website (http://www.brakesonfatalities.org)
provides background, historical and annual promotional information. In 2005,
the Transportation & Development Institute of the American Society of Civil
Engineers (ASCE) became manager of the website. Several members of the T&DI
Transportation Safety Committee also participate on the National Put the Brakes
on Fatalities Day Committee. The T&DI, members of the national committee
and specifically Mark Van Hala, an engineer from Orange County, Florida and
currently my co-chair, deserve thanks for their many efforts promoting the
program.
We have received outstanding support from Secretaries Dean Carlson
and Deb Miller of the Kansas Department of Transportation (from which I retired
in 2006 after a 40-year career), and many statewide and national organizations
that focus on safety. There have been activities to highlight this campaign
every year in many states across the country, but Kansas has been one of the
leading states promoting the program and I couldn’t be more pleased.
Kansas Put the Brakes on Fatalities committee members have come
from both the public and private sector. They are to be thanked for being creative
and dedicated to the program They have held media events, provided safety programs
at schools, created public service announcements, distributed thousands of
brochures, conducted child passenger seat check lanes, obtained governors’
proclamations… the list goes on and on.
We initiated one of our most successful activities in 2002: a
poster contest for all Kansas kids ages 5-13. More than 5,600 kids have participated
by drawing on paper their ideas for reducing fatalities on our streets and
highways. I have helped judge this contest for many years and I can tell you,
it isn’t easy. They are all so creative. Most of the kids provide safe driving
messages with examples that include wearing seat belts, obeying traffic signs,
watching out for trains or animals, or no text-messaging drawings. We have three winners in each region so that
kids across the state have a chance participate and be honored.
But we think all the
kids who enter the contest are winners; they took the time to think about
safety. Today’s kids are our future drivers and there is hope that they will
have safe driving habits for the rest of their lives. There is hope that when
these kids and all drivers commit to safe driving habits we will have a chance
for a FATALITY FREE DAY.
Secretary Deb Miller started our 20 days of great blogs and
they have continued every day. I am very honored to be able to wrap up this
series, but encourage you to continue the efforts to put the brakes on
fatalities.
(For more information, please visit www.brakesonfatalities.)
Larry
Emig is retired from KDOT and the founder of Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day.
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