Prevention
| Safety Showcase | |||
Prevent brain and spinal cord injury by—
- ALWAYS wearing your seatbelt when traveling on a car.
- ALWAYS checking for hidden objects such as logs, rocks and sandbanks before swimming or diving. At the beach, swimming between the flags.
- ALWAYS wearing an approved helmet when riding your bike, skateboard, motorbike or trailbike
- ALWAYS taking time to warm-up before playing sport and maintain your fitness.
- NOT drinking alcohol or take drugs and drive, or travel in a vehicle which is being driven by a person under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
- NOT diving into a lake, river, pool or dam without checking the water depth.
- NO'T taking unnecessary risk when horse riding, snow or water skiing, rock climbing, hang-gliding or trampolining.
- NOT moving an injured person before first determining the correct safety rescue procedures.
Opportunities to raise awareness in your community about the causes and consequences of TBI
Below are some times of the year that may be appropriate for drawing attention to a particular issue:
- October is Brain Injury Awareness Month.
- December is National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month.
- The week of Valentine’s Day is National Child Passenger Safety Week.
- The fourth week of April is National Playground Safety Week.
Schools are a great place to incorporate prevention efforts. The National SAFE KIDS Campaign Web site and the National Program for Playground Safety Web site have teacher plans and student handouts about motor vehicle, sports and recreation, and playground safety.
The U.S. Department of Transportation of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
...provides requests for data and information regarding traffic safety.
The 1996 NHTSA report contains interesting information about a variety of subjects including motor vehicle crashes by vehicle type, occupants, nonmotorists, alcohol, restraints, time, location, circumstances, motorcycles, school buses, pedestrians, pedalcyclists, emergency medical services, city rates, state rates, current laws by state for safety belts, helmets, child protection laws, and more.
Information is available at www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/ncsa and data files, fact sheets, abstracts of technical reports can be downloaded in portable document format (.pdf). Comments and suggestions about the NCSA web site can be e-mailed to ncsaweb@nhsta.dot.gov. NHTSA can also be contacted at:
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
National Center for Statistics and Analysis
NRD-31
400 Seventh Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20590
1-800-934-8517
202-366-4198
202-366-7078 FAX