The links below contained detailed information for the upcoming 2017 Safe States Alliance Annual Meeting, taking place September 12-14, 2017 in Aurora, Colorado.
Please note:
- A total of five concurrent sessions will take place during the Annual Meeting, and there will be up to five breakouts occurring simultaneously during each of those concurrent sessions. Within each breakout, there will be up to four presentations that take place.
- This online system does not allow us to embed the individual presentations within each breakout. Please note the session presentations listed under each Concurrent Breakout title for associated content.
- The on-site mobile app WILL embed these sessions for ease of use.
- A printable, detailed agenda can be found on the 2017 Annual Meeting website.
- If you have any questions, please contact info@safestates.org
- All session times and locations are tentative and subject to change. Safe States will continue to update these details as changes take place.
School Transportation Safety Assessments
Learning Objectives
In this session, participants will learn:
- what constitutes a school safety assessment
- problems with school transportation safety
- Recommended solutions to those problems
Statement of Purpose
In 2012, the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control (SC DHEC) Division of Injury and Violence Prevention began a unique program which involves detailed school audits to assess the safety of all modes of transportation to and from, and surrounding schools.
Methods/Approach
Besides DHEC staff, the assessment team includes school administration, county or city staff, law enforcement, and community leaders. Assessments begin with observance of the layout and the traffic flow from vehicles dropping children off. Vehicles are observed to assess appropriate restraint use of adults and children in the vehicle. The team conducts a Complete Streets evaluation of blocks surrounding the school.
Results
The teams performed 70 assessments, covering 14 of 46 counties, and observed a total of 13,265 vehicle occupants (5,701 drivers and 7,563 students), revealing that 50.8% of occupants are not properly restrained when leaving school property. Additionally, 1,756 students (22.9%) were in the front seat, and 2,418 students (32%) were not belted when leaving the school grounds.
Infrastructure problems identified included speeding in school zones, unsafe parking configurations, poor Americans with Disabilities (ADA) compliance of crosswalks and curb cuts, and streets and sidewalks obstructed or in poor repair. Solutions to identified problems were recommended.
Conclusions & Significance to the Field
These assessments are unique in that they combine vehicle restraint observations with Complete Streets walkability and bikeability assessments, providing a comprehensive picture of the safety of pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicle occupants coming in and out of school property. Student safety, and accessibility by all transportation modes is a top priority for schools. It is up to individual schools and communities to implement recommendations. True evaluation is a challenge because we do not know if these assessments truly reduce crashes or associated injuries on and around school property. No set of recommendations can absolutely prevent crashes, injuries or even death, but we believe that the recommendations made as a result of these assessments will help create a safer place for children while going to and from school.
Presenters
Patsy Myers, SC Department of Health and Environmental Control
Biography
Patsy McGee Myers, M.S.,., DrPH is an Injury Epidemiologist for the Division of Injury and Violence Prevention, South Carolina Dept. of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC). Dr. Myers ‘s previous background includes 15 years as a chronic disease epidemiologist with DHEC, and research and teaching experience in both the UNC School of Medicine and UNC School of Public Health. She has a master's degree in Nutrition from Mississippi State University and a DrPH degree in Public Health Nutrition with a strong background in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina School of Public Health. Dr. Myers is responsible for the development and implementation of epidemiologic research, surveillance and evaluation systems in support of injury prevention and control programs in the DHEC. Her responsibilities involve overseeing primary data development activities, including supervision of the development of primary data collections systems, data analyses and development of periodic and special reports that describe the scope and scale of health related behaviors and the distribution and determinants of injuries. She also serves as an epidemiological consultant for SC_DHEC staff and for community partners involved in primary and secondary disease prevention in SC, as well as an expert resource for supporting regional and national disease control efforts.
Dr. Myers has more than 30 years of experience in public health, with positions at the county, regional, state levels and academic settings and a wide variety of functions, including direct services, program management and staff supervision, research, grant writing, and data analysis and interpretation.
Mr. Neal Martin, SC Department of Health and Environmental Control
Biography
Mr. Neal Martin is the Child Passenger Safety Coordinator at SC Department of Health and Environmental Control. He and his staff are Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician Instructors, and provide a number of services to improve child passenger safety, including, teaching Child Passenger Safety Technician certification classes, conducting car seat safety inspections, conducting school transportation safety assessments, and working with the community to promote child passenger safety.