Public
Information Campaigns
2008 Buckle Up Challenge Project
 The Virginia Department of Health, in partnership with the Virginia Department of Education, is proud to sponsor this year’s Buckle Up Challenge. With summer just around the corner, this is the perfect time to remind students about the importance of buckling up! The 2008 Buckle Up Challenge is a service learning project that engages students and “drives home” the importance of wearing seatbelts while driving or riding in a vehicle! It is our hope that with the help of the Buckle Up Challenge toolkit, your student leaders will succeed in increasing seatbelt usage at your school!
This student-led project consists of an observational baseline survey at the beginning of the week to determine seatbelt usage rates; an education campaign promoting seatbelt usage; and a second survey at the end of the week to determine if the seat belt usage rates increased. The students will then summarize and report the results to the Virginia Department of Health’s Division of Injury and Violence Prevention. The school with a usage rate of 85% or higher will receive an award. The students working on the project will also receive a Leadership Award.
In 2008, CPS Week will be moving to September!
Moving CPS week comes as a result of a collaboration of many organizations that determined that there were many more substantial opportunities to promote child passenger safety during September. September will provide increased opportunities for communities to conduct seat check events without the threat of inclement weather.
Virginia participates in this national observance by encouraging parents and others to buckle children correctly in child safety seats, booster seats and safety belts on every motor vehicle trip. Your participation during this special week plays an important role in stimulating the year-round effort to reduce child passenger deaths and injuries. Encourage the members of your community to give the best hug in the world, the life-saving hug of a safety seat or seat belt.
For those who want to get a head start, VDH and NHTSA will be supporting a 2007 CPS Week, to take place on September 16-22. VDH is currently working on planning activities to observe the new date!
For additional information please contact Tobey Allen 804-864-7747 or tobey.allen@vdh.virginia.gov
First Ride Safe Ride
First Ride Safe Ride is a public awareness campaign among
maternity hospitals in Virginia. The objective of this campaign
is ensuring that each newborn child leaves the hospital
in a properly installed child safety seat by providing technical
assistance, training and the necessary resources to maternity
hospitals. For additional information please contact Heather
Funkhouser 804-864-7738 or heather.funkhouser@vdh.virginia.gov
Other Organizational Campaigns
None for the Road: Virginia Department of
Alcoholic Beverage Control
Fighting drunk and drugged driving is a year-round commitment.
Download the prevention packet to learn more about Virginia's
drinking and driving laws and consequences. Packet includes: reference
information, activity ideas, contacts and resources.
http://www.abc.state.va.us/education.html
Checkpoint
Strikeforce: Part of the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration's (NHTSA) larger campaign involving five mid-Atlantic,
U.S. states plus the District of Columbia - serves as an historic,
statewide law enforcement effort to effectively detect and arrest
impaired drivers in the Commonwealth. www.smartsafeandsober.org.
Click It or Ticket is the most successful seat belt enforcement campaign ever, and it has helped to create the highest national seat belt usage rate of 82 percent. Coast to coast, day or night, the message is simple - Click It or Ticket. For information or a planning kit for the 2007 campaign please click here. http://www.nhtsa.gov/portal/site/nhtsa/menuitem.ce4a601cdfe97fc239d17110cba046a0/
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