Mineral County Health Department's Buckle Up Coalition

Mineral County has been awarded a $23,000 grant from the Montana Department of Transportation for implementation of a Buckle Up Montana Coalition.

The grant period will be from 2/1/2013 – 9/30/2013. Funds will be administered through the Mineral County Health Department.

Project Director, Peggy Stevens will oversee the activity of the coalition and Juli Balenger will serve as the Mineral County Buckle Up Montana Coordinator. Mineral County will work closely with Missoula and Ravalli County’s coalitions.

The funds from this grant will be used for staff, office supplies, and to develop and implement local public information and education programs that reach various demographics to encourage increases in safety belt usage and child safety seats.

The long-term impact of this program is to increase occupant protection usage resulting in measurable progress toward the motor vehicle reduction in fatalities and incapacitating injuries on Montana roads.

The purpose of these services is to increase safety belt usage in Montana from 78.9% in 2010 to 89.3% by 2015; reduce the five-year average number of unrestrained vehicle occupant fatalities from 126 in 2010 to 98 by 2015; and reduce the five-year average number of unrestrained vehicle occupant fatalities and incapacitating injuries from 633 in 2010 to 490 by 2015.

Between 2007 and 2011, 880 drivers and passengers died in vehicle crashes on Montana’s roads.

More than 67% of those people were not wearing their seatbelts.

Another 35,904 occupants were injured where more than 21% of those were not wearing seatbelts. Single vehicle run-off-the-road crashes cause over 50% of the fatalities in Montana; many due to ejection from the vehicle.

Observed seatbelt usage has declined every year since 2004, when it averaged 80.9%, down to 76.9 in 2011. Nearly three out every four motor vehicle occupants killed in crashes every year are unrestrained at the time of the crash and those who are not killed sustain more severe injuries than restrained occupants. These preventable injuries not only result in life-long disability, they also cost Montanans over 14 million dollars in hospital care that is uncompensated or paid by Medicaid (Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center, 2009)1. 1http://www.dphhs.mt.gov/ems/prevention/safetybelttoolkit.shtml

Fatal crashes occur mostly on rural roads where there are higher speeds than in urban crashes.

During 2009, 190 fatalities occurred on rural roads from 180 different crashes. The other 31 fatalities occurred on urban roads from 18 crashes.

Similarly, there were 784 incapacitating injuries on rural roads compared to 325 in an urban setting.

Traffic crashes usually invoke an emergency system response; require an emergency department visit and/or hospitalization, or death notification to the family. All of these effects are extremely costly in terms of productivity losses, system resources, medical costs, and the emotional burden suffered by families and communities.

All community members are encouraged to become a part of our coalition and get involved in assisting in educating our residents.

An organizational meeting is currently being scheduled for the end of February.

Please contact Juli Balenger at 274-5888 or at mineralcountyduicourt@gmail.com for further information.