Seasonal Safety Tips

• Halloween Safety
• Safe Sleep Environments for Infants
• Safe Routes to School
• Winter Safety
• Wheels Under the Tree ... Helmet on the Head
• Summer Pool Safety
• Summer Cycle Safety

Child Passenger Safety

• Summer Infant and Toddler Travel Safety
• Collision Avoidance Training
• Teen Driving Research
• Heat N Cars

Community Outreach
 

Seasonal Safety Tips

Halloween Safety - HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Fall festivities have many children out and about near roads after dark. To raise awareness of safety during this time, local emergency rooms including Levine Children's Emergency Department will be handing out tip sheets on Halloween safety for parents during the last week of October. Handouts will also include an activity sheet and a reflective device for children. In addition, the Carolinas Center for Injury Prevention, as a member of Charlotte Mecklenburg Safe Kids, teams up with Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation to offer reflective and safety devices at the fall events they host in October to increase awareness of safety during this time. Click on these links for more information and downloadable documents: Halloween Safety Tips, Halloween Maze, Halloween Art Bag

Sudden Infant Death Awareness Month Safe Sleep Space
Locally, Mecklenburg County infant deaths from choking and suffocation due to unsafe sleep environments have been on the rise. In an effort to save our youngest citizens, a task force has been developed within Carolinas HealthCare System, including Levine Children's Hospital to provide appropriate modeling of safe sleep practices and parent education on the topic. The Carolinas Center for Injury Prevention also leads a task force with the Mecklenburg County Child Fatality Protection and Prevention Team to spearhead a local multi agency effort to standardize and ensure a wider disbursement of this information locally. Learn tips on providing a safe sleep environment for your child.

Wheels under the Tree...Helmets on the Head
The Center kicks off a collaborative effort to reach into the community and raise awareness that if you give a loved one or a child a gift with wheels such as a bike, scooter, skateboard, motor bike, motor scooter and so forth, the gift is incomplete without a helmet. Learn about which helmet is appropriate for which activity.

Summer Pool Safety
The Summer Pool Safety project began in 2005 as an effort to promote safe pool environments for children. In 2007, the project received the N.C. Safe Kids Project of the Year Award. This project has also been showcased at the American Public Health Association as a communication model, was recently presented at the Fire Chiefs Conference in Raleigh and has been replicated in other N.C. communities. to promote the use of pool barriers to protect children from drowning, Carolinas Center for Injury Prevention together with its partners the Mecklenburg County Health Dept and Charlotte Mecklenburg Safe Kids, developed a public service announcement, postcard and website to promote the local county ordinance requiring such a barrier, as well as the state building code requiring a barrier around pools of two feet of depth. Read more about Pool Safety. 

Summer Cycle Safely
A summer safety program is conducted with local law enforcement agencies, Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation, Union County Safe Kids and area emergency departments including Levine Children's Hospital Emergency Department, to provide vouchers for free helmets to children riding without a bike helmet and a free incentive giveaways for those riding with helmets. This project is conducted with the support of many partners including Charlotte Mecklenburg Safe Kids, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, Pineville Police Department, Matthews Police Department, Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation, the Charlotte Knights, Bike East, Bike Line, South Park Cycles, and the Trips for Kids Re-Cyclery. Learn more. View a video of a local resident whose life was saved by a helmet.

Child Passenger Safety
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death and disability for people ages 1-44 nationally and locally. There are many efforts under way to prevent these injuries from occurring on our area roads. Learn more about steps you can take to protect your family. 

SITTS- Summer Infant and Toddler Travel Safety
In support of National Safe Kids week in October, the Carolinas Center for Injury Prevention, Levine Children's Hospital, Carolinas Physician Network and area Safe Kids Coalitions have partnered to offer parents a tip sheet on safe motor vehicle travel. Along with the flyer of safe travel tips, parents will receive a sticker for their child passenger safety seat to help emergency workers care for your child in the event of a crash to ensure the best possible outcome. Download brochure. 

Collision Avoidance Training
Carolinas Center for Injury Prevention has partnered with Central Piedmont Community College to offer a hands-on defensive teen driving class for young drivers. This class is currently held Friday nights and Saturday during the day. The center is also currently conducting a teen driving study to gather data to see if this class is effective in changing teen driving attitudes in 2008 and 2009. Download tips for keeping your teen safe. To learn more about the N.C. Graduated Licensing law, classes and steps parents can take to help build their teens driving skills, visit our Injury Prevention Spotlight on Teen Driving.

Teen Driving Research
The Carolinas Center for Injury Prevention with Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte are currently conducting a survey of parent drivers to determine the current extent of involvement they have in their teens driving experiences. We are currently seeking funding to explore with UNCC if teen driving causalities can be correlated with road development in an effort to impact future road development that may be safer for drivers. Read a report on Teen Driving.

Heat N Cars
The Carolinas Center for Injury Prevention teams up with the Mecklenburg County Child Fatality Prevention and Protection team and Charlotte Mecklenburg Safe Kids every summer to distribute fliers to area businesses and agencies to download and post on entryway doors to raise awareness that leaving a child alone in a vehicle even for a minute can be dangerous. Download flier in English. Download flier in Spanish.

Community Outreach

Safe N Sound
The Carolinas Center for Injury Prevention was granted a cooperative agreement from the National Institutes of Child Health and Development to spearhead the first phase of a translational study of a computerized individually tailored injury prevention program in four local pediatric offices. Additional funding is currently being sought for this program with the St. Louis University Communications division to add child maltreatment to the list of topics this program addresses.

In an effort to protect area children, the Carolinas Center for Injury Prevention is partnering with the Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services to make home safety checklists available to social workers. The social workers can use these checklists at home visits with local families to educate these families on how to make the home environment safer for children.

Carolinas Center for Injury Prevention also continues to support local, regional, state and national, injury prevention efforts through our appointment on the National Association of Children's Hospitals Injury Prevention Board, the UNC Charlotte Public Health Advisory Board, the Child Fatality Team Executive Board, chairing the Injury Prevention Committee for the Regional Metrolina Trauma Committee, and by serving on other coalitions including, the Safe Kids Charlotte Mecklenburg Coalition, the Drug Free Charlotte Coalition, the Healthy Carolinians Coalition, and the Carolinas Medical Center Youth Violence Prevention Committee.