March 2008Funds Released to Improve Pedestrian and Child Passenger SafetyBy Steven J. MossPrompted in part by a six percent increase in pedestrian-related injuries from 2006 to 2007, the San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH) recently distributed almost $400,000 in state-funded grants to community-based nonprofits to help reduce child automobile passenger injuries. Local grantees include San Francisco General Hospital’s (SF General) Family Health and Women’s Health centers, located at 1001 Potrero Avenue; Teenage Pregnancy and Parenting Program, which has offices at 2730 Bryant Street; and Potrero Hill Family Resource Center’s Economic Opportunity Council, located at 1426 Fillmore Street. The Women’s Health Center received its third consecutive grant for the quality work they’ve conducted educating caregivers on child passenger safety. The grant program is part of a citywide campaign to reduce child passenger injuries and fatalities among low-income and minority communities. The need for the campaign was originally based on data from the trauma registry at SF General, the City’s only Level One Trauma Center, which indicated that all of the children who suffered severe injuries from car crashes in 2004 were from Hispanic, African-American, and Asian communities. According to a 2006 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study, up to 83 percent of children less than 12 years-old are not properly restrained while riding in a vehicle. An observational study conducted last Fall by four San Francisco-based community organizations found that more than seven percent of children under the age of six years-old, and 20 percent of seven and eight year-olds, rode in the vehicles’ front seat; with six percent of children in this age group riding without seatbelts. “We have learned that standard safety messages don’t get through to stressed communities: low-income communities, communities of color, those whose first language is not English, and recent immigrants and refugees. These require specific targeted outreach to help educate and assist caregivers to properly secure children in motor vehicles,” said Michael Radetsky, DPH’s Injury Prevention Coordinator. “This campaign endeavors to ensure that every San Franciscan caregiver knows how to keep children safe in cars.”
|
This Month's StoriesPotrero Hill Recreation Center a Big Draw for Locals Slowing Economy Puts Rehabilitation Nonprofit on the Brink Potrero Hill Doctor Resuscitates the Lost Art of House Calls Potrero Hill Baby Boomers Gather for Second Reunion Innovation Considered Critical for Regional Economy High Efficiency Toilet Program Saves Low Income Families and Small Businesses Water and Money Fighting Hunger One Tree at a Time in West Africa City Fees, Fines and Charges Rising Rapidly Water Conservation Trainee Works to Overcome Life’s Challenges On-going Features
 |