Member Profile

One of three co-chairs for the Idaho Seat Belt Coalition, Dave Carlson has been advocate for traffic safety in the Gem State for the past 18 years. A native Idahoan, Dave is Director of Public and Government Affairs for AAA Idaho. He serves in several capacities for AAA Idaho, including media spokesman, lobbyist and editor for the 90-thousand member organization.

Dave went to work for AAA Idaho in 1989, three years after his organization lobbied for legislation that resulted in Idaho's original seat belt law. Since then, he's worked to educate motorists about the benefits of buckling up, and he's lobbied to strengthen the existing law, whose $10 fine is tied for lowest in the country. He helped strengthen the provisions of the child safety seat law several years ago, with legislation brought by a coalition of interested parties.
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Idaho’s Seat Belt Use Declines

Idaho’s seat belt use is on the decline following loss of grant funding to sustain the program. Idaho’s seat belt use fell from nearly 80 percent in 2006, to 78.5 percent in 2007. Seat belt use by occupants declined in all types of vehicles; passenger cars, SUV’s/vans, and pick up trucks. What is more revealing of Idaho’s seat belt use problem is that only 39 percent of occupants killed in traffic crashes in 2006 were wearing their seat belts.
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Crashes Get a Closer Look with Trauma Registry

Idaho policymakers, administrators and others will soon have a powerful new evaluative tool to judge the impacts of crashes, including those involving unbelted occupants.
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New Highway Safety Manager

It is my pleasure to announce that Share Maack has been selected as the Highway Safety Manager for the Office of Highway Operations and Safety. Share was previously a Grants Contracts Officer in the Highway Safety office. She comes to the Idaho Transportation Department with over fifteen years of managing budgets, performing program planning and contracting. She also brings strategic planning and program implementation skills that will be an asset in the implementation of the Idaho Transportation Department's Strategic Highway Safety Plan and other highway safety programs. Please join me in welcoming Share to her new position.

Yahoo Email Group

We have created a Yahoo email group so that we can communicate among each other and share ideas and thoughts. We feel that this email group will be especially helpful as we develop regional seat belt coalition groups. We hope that you will consider signing up for this list. When you sign up, you can select that you receive a daily digest rather than individual emails to keep email to a minimum.
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Updated Educational Tools

We are updating materials on our website. Our Idaho Seat Belt Coalition Fact Sheet has been updated with current information. It can be located on our website at Quicklinks, Crash Info & Stats page.

Also, the Trends in Seat Belt Use in Idaho Traffic Crashes has been updated. It too is located on our Crash Info and Stats page.

We have also added more information regarding the preventable health care costs for Idahoans due to not buckling up. This information, including a handout, powerpoint presentation, and 2 video clips, can be located on our website, under Quicklinks, Talking Points. This presentation was given at your Highway Safety Summit in April 2007. The video clips illustrate what happens to unrestrained bodies (dummies) in crashes. Child dummies are in one of the clips.

Last, we have added a powerpoint presentation for the Idaho Seat Belt Coalition that is up to date. You can access it on our website, under Quicklinks, Talking Points. Let us know if you have any trouble downloading it. You can use this presentation for your uses. Please let us know if we can be of help if you need different statistics or whatever.

Successful FHWA – Idaho Division/Idaho Transportation Department Division of Motor Vehicles Joint Safety and Information Fair Booth

The Western Idaho Fair ended Sunday evening, Aug 26th. FHWA - Idaho Division, ITD Office of Highway Safety, and ITD DMV provided Safety, Registration and Travel Information and demonstrated the effectiveness of seat belts using the Division’s “Seat Belt Barbie” presentation. Approximately 60 dozen eggs were broken demonstrating the effectiveness of seatbelts over the 10 days of the fair.
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Refrigerator Magnets in Stock

We have more of the red refrigerator magnets in stock. If you haven’t seen them, they say, “Take Safety to Heart, Buckle Up!” The heart comes out of the middle of the magnet leaving a frame for a picture. They are very cute. You can order them by contacting Mary Hunter, mary.hunter@itd.idaho.gov.

Sharing the Seat Belt Message in the Press

On BuckleUpIdaho.com, we now have several articles or letters to the editor written, not by coalition members, but by the public. These surely indicate that our messages are resonating in the public.
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