This holiday season, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is asking your agency to remind drivers to wear their seat belts and designate a sober driver. The crackdown periods for Holiday Season 2014 are November 27 (occupant protection), November 28-December 9 and December 10-31 (impaired driving). Thanksgiving Holiday Travel: November 27, 2014
The Thanksgiving holiday is one of the busiest travel times of the year and anticipation of the celebrations
may cause drivers to pay less attention to ensuring that travel to their destination is done as safely as possible. During the 2012 Thanksgiving weekend, 301 passenger vehicle occupants were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes nationwide, 60 percent of which were not wearing seat belts.
Wearing a seat belt is the single most effective way to save your life and the lives of your loved ones while on the road. So this Thanksgiving, make sure those in your community know that drivers and passengers need to be wearing their seatbelts every time they are in a moving vehicle. With the help of highway safety advocates and local law enforcement officers, we can increase seat belt use and save lives on our roadways. Utilize statistics provided by NHTSA to increase awareness about the importance of wearing you seat belt:
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), seat belts saved over 12,000 lives nationwide in 2012.
In the same year, 52 percent of the 21,667 passenger vehicle occupants killed in motor vehicle crashes were NOT wearing seat belts at the time of the crash. (Continued on page 2)
Holiday Season 2014
Thanksgiving Holiday Travel: November 27, 2014 Pre-Holiday Season Festivities: November 28 –
December
9, 2014Holiday Season Drunk Driving Prevention: December 12, 2014 - January 1, 2015
November 2014
Dispatch
Inside this issue: NHTSA Holiday Crackdowns 1-3 Changes to National Law Enforcement Challenge Application 4 National Law Enforcement Challenge Winners 5-6 Campaign Materials
High Visibility Enforcement Social Norming
(Continued from page 1)
Nighttime (6 p.m. to 5:59 a.m.) is an especially dangerous time because people are less likely to wear a seat belt. During the 2012 Thanksgiving weekend, 60 percent of the 301 passenger vehicle occupants who were killed in nighttime crashes were not wearing their seat belts. This was a tragic 9 percent decline in seatbelt use from Thanksgiving weekend in 2011.
Research shows that with proper seat belt use, the risk of fatal injury to front seat passengers is reduced by 45 percent, and the risk of moderate to serious injury is reduced by 60 percent. Pre-Holiday Season Drunk Driving Prevention:
Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving November 28 - December 9, 2014
Although drunk driving fatalities occur all year round, statistics show that the roadways are especially dangerous during the holiday season. This holiday season, highway safety partners and law enforcement agencies across the country are urged to remind their community that they will have zero tolerance for
those who drive impaired.
Individuals who have had anything to drink should not get behind the wheel of a car and seek a sober driver instead. Share these four simple ways for community members to ensure a safe ride home for themselves and others:
Designate a sober driver before the party begins; plan a way to get home safely at the end of the night.
If you are impaired, call a taxi, phone a sober friend or family member, use public transportation or call your local free ride program.
Be responsible. If someone you know is drinking, do not let that person get behind the wheel.
If you see an impaired driver on the road, contact law enforcement. Your actions may save someone’s life, and inaction could cost a life.
(Holiday Season 2014 continued on page 3)
Cont. Holiday Season 2014
Campaign Materials
Enforcement Social Norming
Holiday Season 2014:
Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over
High Visibility Enforcement: December 12, 2014 - January 1, 2015
For many Americans, “holiday cheer” involves consuming alcohol at parties and holiday events, so it comes as no surprise that there is a spike in drunk driving crashes each December. Here are a few important statistics that law enforcement officials can communicate to their communities to impress the seriousness of impaired driving upon them:
During the 2012 holiday period (December 12-31), 31% of the 1,698 people killed in crashes involved an impaired driver.
Compared with other age groups, teen drivers are at greater risk of death in alcohol-related crashes, despite the fact that they are too young to legally possess or consume alcohol.
In 2012, more than half (53%) of drunk drivers had at least one prior DUI conviction on their record.
In many jurisdictions, refusing a breathalyzer test results in immediate arrest, loss of your driver’s license, and the impoundment of your vehicle.
Some DUI offenders say the reason they drove drunk was because a cab was too expensive. However, the average DUI violation costs around $10,000. Can you afford that?
This year, NHTSA will release two digital holiday enforcement videos in English and Spanish with the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over tagline and our Spanish language campaign tagline, Maneja Tomado Y Seras
Arrestado, as well as a mobile app. The mobile app will allow drivers who have had too much to drink to call
a taxi, a friend, or find their location. The campaign assets will also include social media tips, tweets, and infographics for state use.
For the latest campaign updates, please visit the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign website www.nhtsa.gov/drivesober or for additional campaign materials visit www.trafficsafetymarketing.gov.
Cont. Holiday Season 2014
By participating in the National Law Enforcement Challenge (NLEC), law enforcement agencies
are actively serving their communities by making them a safer place to live. The focus of the
NLEC is to address traffic safety issues and reduce injuries, save lives, and detect and deter crime.
NLEC application criteria focuses on Occupant Protection, Impaired Driving, and Speed
Aware-ness. Applying agencies must also choose a State/Local Issue that allows agencies to describe a
community-specific traffic safety issue and how it is being addressed in their jurisdiction.
New Application Format: Fillable PDF
In order to provide participating agencies with the cleanest and most efficient way to submit their
applications to the 2015 NLEC, the format has been changed so that agencies can fill in their
nar-rative summaries of their year-round efforts in each main category on a PDF form. Each summary
should be at least 500 and no more than 2,000 characters. Additionally, agencies should be
pre-pared to answer questions regarding basic agency information and enforcement statistics for each
category on this form.
This will be available for download off of the NLEC website (www.theiacp.org/NLEC) in
Decem-ber 2014.
New Resources for NLEC Applicants
For the first time, model applications from select agencies will be available for viewing on the
NLEC website. These were selected from the pool of winners of the 2014 NLEC so future
cants can study and shape their submissions into winning applications. Along with the model
appli-cations, a new basic template will be provided so agencies can format their attachments into an
easy-to-read format.
2015 National Law Enforcement Challenge
2014 National Law Enforcement
Challenge Winners
Municipal 1-25 Sworn Officers
Geneseo Police Department, NY 1st Princess Anne Police Department, MD 2nd Ashland Police Department, VA 3rd Municipal 26-75 Sworn Officers
Peachtree City Police Department, GA 1st Novato Police Department, CA 2nd Carol Stream Police Department, IL 3rd Municipal 76-250 Sworn Officers
Roanoke County Police Department, VA 1st Roanoke Police Department, VA 2nd
Brownsville, GA 3rd
Municipal 251 or More Sworn Officers Henrico County Police Division, VA 1st Anne Arundel County Police, MD 2nd Clarksville Police Department, TN 3rd Sheriff 1-50 Sworn Deputies
Westmoreland County Sheriff’s Office, VA 1st Lathrop Police Services/San Joaquin County Sher-iff’s Office, CA 2nd
New Kent County Sheriff’s Office, VA 3rd Sheriff 51-250 Sworn Deputies
St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office, MD 1st Calvert County Sheriff’s Office, MD 2nd Stafford County Sheriff’s Office, VA 3rd Sheriff 251 or More Sworn Deputies Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, TN 1st Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, GA 2nd Hall County Sheriff’s Office, GA 3rd State Police/Highway Patrol 1-500 Sworn Nebraska State Patrol 1st
Maine State Police 2nd
State Police/Highway Patrol 501-1500 Sworn Washington State Patrol 1st Tennessee Highway Patrol 2nd Arizona Department of Public Safety 3rd
State Police/Highway Patrol 1,501 or More Sworn
California Highway Patrol 1st Ohio State Patrol 2nd New Jersey State Police 3rd
Other Agencies
College/University Law Enforcement Virginia Commonwealth University Police
Department, VA 1st
State University of New York -
Oswego, NY 2nd
Cornell University Police, NY 3rd International Agencies
Federal Highway Police - Brazil 1st Military Police
Fort Campbell Police, KY 1st Fort Carson Police Department, CO 2nd Regional Enforcement Efforts
Iowa Department of Public Safety 1st Special Law Enforcement
Maryland Transportation Authority Police
Department 1st
Vermont Department of Motor Vehicle Enforcement and Safety Division 2nd
(Continued on page 5)
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CHIEFS OF POLICE WWW.THEIACP.ORG
SPECIAL CATEGORY AWARDS
Town of Manlius Police Department, NY
Bike/Pedestrian Safety
Tennessee Highway Patrol
CMV - State Police
New Kent County Sheriff’s Office, VA
CMV - Municipal/Sheriff
California Highway Patrol
Distracted Driving
California Highway Patrol
Impaired Driving
Cobb County Police Department, GA
Motorcycle Safety
Ohio State Highway Patrol
Occupant Protection
Ohio State Highway Patrol
Speed Awareness
Clayton J. Hall Memorial Award
California Highway Patrol
The Traffic Safety Dispatch is funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and published by the Division of State and Provincial Police of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Sharing of material in this newsletter is encouraged. Submissions and comments may be directed to Sarah Horn, IACP, 515 N Washington Street, Alexandria, VA 22314, by e-mail at [email protected], or calling 703-836-6767.
