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Abstract #157742

• Handout (free access)

Karen Brock, MPH and Garry Lapidus, PA-C MPH. Injury Prevention Center/Safe Kids Connecticut, Connecticut Children's Medical Center, 282 Washington Street, Hartford, CT 06106, 860-545-9977, kbrock@ccmckids.org

Objective: Using the police accident report forms from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the safety device items currently collected by these forms were compared against the laws of these states.

Methods: We examined the police accident report forms to determine the presence and coding scheme for the following safety variables: airbags, seat belts, car seats, booster seats, motorcycle helmets, and bike helmets; as well as legislative variables: seat belt enforcement status (primary, secondary), motorcycle helmet law, bicycle helmet law, and booster seat law.

Results: The most serious gaps in the variables being collected involve child safety and bicycle helmets. Seventy-six percent of states had a booster seat law, but only 20% coded for booster seats. Forty-one percent of states had a bicycle helmet law, but only 22% coded specifically for bicycle helmets.

Conclusion: The study describes major deficiencies in safety device items included on state-based police accident reports forms. The impact of this data gap is a diminished ability to access the impact of traffic safety legislation and use patterns during a motor vehicle crash.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the importance of conforming police accident report forms to enacted legislation for the purposes of injury surveillance and advocacy.
• Have the participant assess the police accident report form of their own state for safety variables that are not in accordance with enacted law for their state.

Keywords: Motor Vehicles, Policy/Policy Development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

• Handout (free access)