Injury Prevention Services Traffic Safety Program
Traffic safety plays an important role for individuals of any age. It can be fitting a car seat correctly into a vehicle, bicycling for sport or leisure, taking a walk around your neighborhood, or getting behind the wheel of a vehicle. Keeping roadways safe for kids and families is the goal of this new program. Injury Prevention Services strives to reduce injuries and fatalities associated with traffic safety and this grant will add to the provision of quality services to Riverside County residents for many more years. Activities to be offered include:
- Conducting bicycle safety days to promote the use of bicycle helmets and safety equipment.
- Walk your Child to School events to promote pedestrian safety as well as encourage physical activity.
- A Student Valet Program to calm traffic around school drop off/pick up zones will be implemented at one school site in the city of Riverside.
- Working with local hospitals to establish child passenger safety programs for families, caregivers, and children with special health care needs throughout Riverside County.
“Educating the community on the importance of traffic safety is a top priority of our department and we look forward to implementing these programs for our youth,” said Olivia Ballesteros, Director of Injury Prevention Services.“What our kids learn about traffic safety early not only keeps them safe, it sets the stage for a lifetime of good habits,” said Christopher J. Murphy, Director of the California Office of Traffic Safety. “Programs like this go a long way toward saving lives and futures.”
Announcing New Car Seat Education Classes
Through a unique partnership with Parkview Community Hospital, Injury Prevention Services will conduct monthly car seat education classes for all expecting parents starting January 2008. Participants will be eligible to receive ONE FREE car seat after completing a class. Follow this link for more information on how to enroll in the program. More »
Funding for the program comes from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. |
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| Real Life "Saved
By Event" |
Injury Prevention Services
provides a unique service
- Home Safety Assessments.
This program trains existing
staff county wide who conduct
home visits. Staff attends
a 5-hour workshop and receives
education on identifying
injury risks that exist
in and around the home,
information to provide
parents on strategies to
reduce these risks and
provide safety devices
when an actual injury risk
is identified.
Kari Spoelstra, RN/BSN is the coordinator of Peri-natal Outreach Services for San Gorgonio Memoria Hospital. Kari conducts home visits to new moms assisting with breast feeding needs. As part of the visit, Kari offers her clients a Home Safety Assessment. In 2007 Kari conducted 110 Home Safety Assessments (HSA), more than any single provider.
Kari relayed the following real life stories:
I scheduled a HSA appointment with a young Hispanic couple who were bringing home their first baby. This was the couple’s first home, a two-bedroom house. The home did not have a refrigerator and was sold without smoke or carbon monoxide (CO) detectors. When we walked through the house it felt cold but became warmer as we moved towards the kitchen. In the kitchen I found the oven on with the door open. The couple had opened it to provide extra heat for the home. They stated that the wall heater did not work well. I felt uncomfortable in the house and decided to place batteries in the smoke and CO monitors immediately. The CO monitor instantly started alarming. We doubled checked the detector to make sure it was functioning correctly. It was so we turned off the gas. The family called for repairs and the learned that not only the oven was mal-functioning but the wall heater as well. Luckily the family had only just moved into the house the day previous to my visit. Consequently the doors had been opened most of the time to move furniture.
This is the second home I had been to this year that had a serious CO issue. During another home visit, a young couple had a broken heater that was red tagged by the gas company. The landlord of the property owned over 500,000 rental units in California and was refusing to replace the appliance. I interceded and contacted the landlord and informed them of our (San Gorgonio Hospital) involvement in the Home Safety Assessment program. Once the rental company knew that the hospital was checking into their practices they replaced the heater. This was important since the home was literally a one-room shack off a dirt road and we were having very cold weather at the time. I learned later through this experience that the State of California requires all rentals to have operational heating.
Great job Kari/San Gorgonio Memorial hospital for improving the quality of your client’s lives!
November 2007 |
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| Importance
of a 5-Point Harness Carseat |
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An
amateur video called "Importance
of a 5-Point Harness Car
seat"
was posted to YouTube on Nov.
2 and has reached more than
a million viewers so far.
The mother reports in this
very moving story that her
3-year-old son Kyle was killed
while riding in his booster
seat when the safety belt
came unlatched in a rollover
crash. Kyle's family urges
parents and care givers to
use a forward-facing car
seat with a higher weight
harness. See
the video here
Find
a location to get
your car seat installation
inspected. |
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