Adopting a Public Health Approach to Traffic Safety

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The purpose of the Cooperative Agreement (CA) will be to develop a new program to build the capacity of State and local traffic agencies to address traffic safety issues using a public health approach. This program will be a pilot program, to be implemented with a limited number of local and State entities. To meet this purpose, NHTSA will provide financial assistance to a public health organization to develop methodologies and tools to adopt a public health approach to preventing motor-vehicle-crash-related injury and death, while also considering opportunities to address equity in highway traffic safety. The Recipient may establish one (1) Public Health Expert who may carry out the following performance goals to meet the purpose and objectives of the Agreement: • Inform State and local traffic agencies (e.g. State Highway Safety Offices) of the public health approach to traffic safety and its benefits • Develop new assessment and monitoring tools to investigate and address the traffic safety hazards including impaired driving and occupant protection • Facilitate community mobilization and partnerships between State and local traffic safety agencies and State and local public health agencies to implement best practices; as well as to assess equity disparities resulting from previous and current approaches Indicators for these outcomes can include but are not limited to a review of current applicable literature, the creation of a virtual resource database, the publication of case studies, and ongoing educational events such as webinars where information can be discussed. Success will be measured by participating State and local traffic safety agencies’ perceptions and sustained relationships with public health partners.

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