Highway safety campaigns across the USA increasingly are reflecting the nation’s diversity.
State traffic agencies are tailoring safe driving campaigns to reflect growth in minority groups and even refugee communities where English is not fully understood.
In Ohio, officials designing a seat-belt campaign aimed at the state’s large Somali refugee population wanted to adapt the popular “Click it or ticket” slogan but found that “ticket” doesn’t translate.
“They don’t have a government in Somalia, so ‘ticket’ doesn’t mean anything to them,” says Tina O’Grady, administrator of the state’s Traffic Safety Office. “We ended up translating it as ‘Strap it, or lose your livestock,’ which also means your money or income or livelihood.”
Federal rules require agencies that receive federal traffic safety funds to make safety information available to people whose English is limited, says Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association. “There are diverse populations all over the country,” she says.
Citing Census projections that minority groups will become the majority by 2042, GHSA created a guide to help states with multicultural outreach programs.
Minorities are disproportionately killed in traffic crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Native American and Hispanic drivers die disproportionately in alcohol-related crashes. Blacks have lower seat-belt use rates, and black and Hispanic children have lower restraint usage rates.
Among state efforts:
•Maryland. Officials teamed with urban/hip-hop radio station WPGC to promote safety among African-American motorcyclists after noticing that predominantly black Prince George’s County had more motorcycle fatalities than anywhere else in the state, says Vernon Betkey, chief of the Maryland Highway Safety Office.
•North Dakota. Native Americans are 5% of the state population but account for 17% of traffic deaths. The state hired Kat Communications, which has a 20-year history among Native-American communities “to design a message that reflects their culture and traditional values, then integrate the safety message into the whole mix,” says Kat Communications owner Todd Muggerud.
Source: USA TODAY
By Larry Copeland, USA TODAY
