Notice to Readers: Drive Safely Work Week --- September 11--15, 2000
The Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS), a nonprofit
organization comprising corporate, state, and federal partners, is sponsoring the fourth annual
Drive Safely Work Week during September 11--15, 2000. Unintentional injuries are the
leading cause of death in the United States for persons aged 1--44 years and accounted
for approximately 97,000 deaths among persons of all ages in 1997
(1). In 1998, approximately 41,000 persons died on U.S. highways and another 3.2 million suffered nonfatal
injuries (2).
Highway fatalities have decreased substantially since 1966 (n=50,984), and the
fatality rate per mile of travel has decreased more than threefold (from 5.5 in 1966 to 1.6 in
1998) (3). However, minimal changes have occurred in the numbers of fatalities and the
fatality rate per mile from 1994 to 1998. Although most injuries and fatalities in 1998 were
to vehicle occupants, pedestrians accounted for 5220 of the fatalities and 69,000 of
the injuries (4). Motor-vehicle crashes also are the leading cause of occupational
injury deaths, accounting for approximately 16,000 deaths in workers from 1980 to 1992,
or 20% of all fatal workplace injuries over this period
(5).
The national campaign to prevent motor-vehicle crashes includes a "toolkit"
that contains information, posters, and suggested programs that employers or other
groups can use to address five major traffic safety issues: safety belt use, aggressive
driving, driver inattention, sharing the road with trucks, and impaired driving. The materials
are not dated and may be used throughout the year.
Additional information about NETS and purchasing the toolkit (cost: $25) is
available on the World-Wide Web, http://www.trafficsafety.org,* or telephone, (202)
452-6005. Additional information about motor-vehicle--related injuries is available from the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov. Information
about occupational transportation injuries is available from CDC's National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh.
References
National Center for Health Statistics. Deaths: final data for 1997. National Vital Statistics
Reports, vol. 47, no. 19. Hyattsville, Maryland: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC,
National Center for Health Statistics, 1999.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Traffic safety facts, 1998: overview.
Washington, DC: US Department of Transportation, 1999 (HS 808 956).
Martinez R. Statement of the honorable Ricardo Martinez, M.D., Administrator, National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration, before the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation,
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, U.S. House of Representatives, July 17, 1997. Available
at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/nhtsa/announce/testimony/aggres2.html. Accessed August 2000.
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Preventing worker injuries and
deaths from traffic-related motor vehicle crashes. Cincinnati, Ohio: US Department of Health and
Human Services, 1998. DHHS (NIOSH) publication no. 98-142.
* References to sites of non-CDC organizations on the World-Wide Web are provided as
a service to MMWR readers and do not constitute or imply endorsement of these
organizations or their programs by CDC or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is
not responsible for the content of pages found at these sites.
Disclaimer
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An original paper copy of this issue can be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents,
U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), Washington, DC 20402-9371; telephone: (202) 512-1800.
Contact GPO for current prices.
**Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to
mmwrq@cdc.gov.
