The DeKalb County Board of Health is proud to announce its 13th year of
partnership with the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. The Board of Health recently
received a $67,800 Safe Communities grant for traffic and pedestrian safety programs.
The grant will support a variety of initiatives through 2012. They will address
child passenger and pedestrian safety, teen safe driving, and impaired driving prevention.
In addition, DeKalb’s Safe Communities will have two special focuses. One will
be increasing public awareness of the July 2011 change to Georgia’s child passenger
safety law. This law now requires that children under age 8 be properly restrained in an
approved car seat or booster seat secured in the vehicle’s back seat. From 2005 through
2009, DeKalb County saw 11 crash-related deaths of children under the age of 13. Many
of these deaths can be attributed to three out of four children being in a seat that was not
used correctly.
The other focus will be free educational opportunities for teens and parents
through the Parents Reducing Injuries and Driver Error (“PRIDE”) program. This
program addresses driver attitudes, knowledge and behaviors, rather than hands-on skills.
From 2005 through 2009, there were 42 motor vehicle deaths of DeKalb residents ages
13 through 19.
For information on traffic and pedestrian safety activities in DeKalb County,
contact Denika Lomax, DeKalb Safe Communities Coordinator, DeKalb County Board
of Health, at drlomax@dhr.state.ga.us or (404) 508-7884.
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