May 15th, 2003The Southeast Iowa SAFE KIDS Coalition recently was honored for helping reduce Iowa traffic fatalities in 2002. The award, which recognized the coalition’s participation in Iowa highway traffic safety initiatives, was presented by the Iowa Department of Public Safety’s Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau and the National High Traffic Safety Administration.
Great River Medical Center is the lead SAFE KIDS organization. Of the 225 traffic-safety partners receiving the award, fewer than 20 were not law-enforcement agencies. Great River Medical Center is the only participating health-care organization in Des Moines, Henry, Lee and Louisa counties.
Through a grant from the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau, the Southeast Iowa SAFE KIDS Coalition provided low-cost bicycle helmets to more than 700 children and adults between December 2001 and October 2002. The coalition also offered injury-prevention programs at Day of the Child, Healthy Kids Day at the Burlington YM/YWCA, Des Moines county schools, bicycle rodeos, Safety Town and other children’s events.
Iowa’s 2002 traffic fatality rate was the lowest it has been since World War II.