Public Policy
TIRF releases alcohol interlock study
We're very happy to announce the publication of “The Implementation of Alcohol Interlocks for First Offenders: A Case Study.”
This case study, written by Traffic Injury Research Foundation and commissioned by The Century Council, focuses on jurisdictions that have used alcohol interlocks to combat drunk driving. The purpose of this case study was to gain insight into how legislation is translated into operational practices, and to provide guidance to other jurisdictions using the knowledge that has been gained to inform decision-making.
Check out the executive summary of the case study, or the full report.
Buckle up!
While drunk driving is one of the greatest dangers to drivers on the road, there are many other ways to be safer behind the wheel. And while seatbelts are widely used and respected, we can always use a reminder. This touching video, courtesy of Sussex Roads Partnership in the United Kingdom, powerfully drives home the message.
National Youth Traffic Safety Month!
May is National Youth Traffic Safety Month, and a perfect time to refocus efforts on keeping America’s youth safe on our roadways. Youth and organizations across the nation will host and participate in events and projects to increase awareness about youth traffic safety.
National Youth Traffic Safety Month addresses the number one cause of death for youth in our nation. Every year more than 5,000 youth die in traffic-related crashes. Many of these crashes are caused by avoidable behavior, and specific actions can be taken to be a safer driver and ensure passenger (and other motorists’ and pedestrians’) safety.
You may recall The Century Council’s efforts last October during National Teen Driver Safety Week, in which we produced an eCard designed to highlight some of the distractions teen drivers are approached with when they drive. Cell phone usage, eating, loud music and other similar distractions provide unnecessary interruptions to all drivers, but youth are especially affected by these annoyances due to their lack of experience behind the wheel.
We commend the National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) on their hard work preparing for National Youth Traffic Safety Month! We encourage you to visit NOYS’s website and check out their toolkit to see how you can get involved. We can all play a part in helping to keep our roadways safe for all!
Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, 2010!
Yesterday, The Century Council hosted a ‘Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day’ event yesterday in the Cannon Caucus Room on Capitol Hill, along with our partners, Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Foundation, the Artists and Athletes Alliance, and PE4Life. For the past four years we’ve celebrated Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day with such an event, and this was by far the largest, with over 500 attendees!
For this year’s event, we were joined by eight-time Olympic medal winner Apolo Anton Ohno, who’s been a fantastic partner for our Ask, Listen, Learn program, inspiring kids all over the country to say ‘YES’ to a healthy lifestyle and ‘NO’ to underage drinking. Dara Torres joined us as well, with her daughter and mother, and discussed her Olympic career It was a pleasure having three generations of Torres's participate in our event, and we were glad Dara was able to bring her own daughter to work! Dara and Apolo both were generous enough to sign autographs for the attendees, and if their writing hand is any indication, they are both in peak physical fitness!
We also brought our Ask, Listen, Learn interactive activity, four of them running on TVs, and one running on a projector for all to watch. The kids loved it! We hope everyone who wanted to got a chance to play! Players from DC United and DC Freedom were kind enough to help the kids play. We're posting all of the pictures from the event to our Flickr page - we've got a handful up already, and the rest should be up shortly.
Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day has become a very important day for The Century Council. We believe that the parent’s role in preventing underage drinking is undeniable, and so we want to help parents start this dialogue with their children.
Life Savers, here we come!
The Century Council is pleased to be attending the 2010 Lifesavers Annual Conference in Philadelphia. Lifesavers is the premier national highway safety meeting in the United States dedicated to reducing the tragic toll of deaths and injuries on our nation's roadways. Each year, the Lifesavers Conference provides a forum that delivers relevant and timely common-sense solutions to today's critical highway safety problems.
The conference addresses a wide range of safety topics, from child passenger safety and occupant protection to roadway and vehicle safety and technology. It offers the latest information on advances in highway safety, highlights successful programs and draws attention to emerging safety issues.
We always learn something new at the Lifesavers Conference, and we’re looking forward to going. Let us know if you’re heading too!
Underage drinking, still a problem
New statistics on underage drinking are in.
Nearly 28% of American youth aged 12-20 reported consuming alcohol in the past month, according to data released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, reflecting a relatively stagnant trend in underage drinking nationally. Rates were lowest in Utah (13.7%,) with North Dakota and Vermont at the top of the list (40.6 and 40.4, respectively.)
Of this 28%, only 9% reported buying the alcohol themselves the last time they drank. This in itself is heartening. Our Cops In Shops program, now in 49 states, focuses specifically on making it difficult for underage drinkers to acquire alcohol. We think this program has been pretty successful. However, the relatively small number of underage purchasers of alcohol this points to the need for stronger, more sensible social host laws to prevent teens from getting alcohol from parties or parents.
Alaska and New Mexico had the lowest rates of self-purchase, at 3.1 and 3.7%, respectively. This rate was highest in Louisiana and the District of Columbia, both at 18.8%.
While we’re disappointed by the lack of movement in these numbers, we’re seeing a lot of progress in some states. We’re going to keep working to ensure that the numbers keep dropping.