Grays Harbor Traffic Safety and Injury Prevention Task Force

The Grays Harbor Traffic Safety and Injury Prevention Task Force is a community-based project with the mission of reducing injuries and death from trauma and promoting SAFETY!

Our members come from local law enforcement, Fire/EMS, public housing, substance abuse treatment, schools, and both private and public social welfare organizations.

Most our effort is directed at improvements in traffic related issues. Our primary source for funding is the in-kind matching funds from local governments. This comes to the group through donations of time and equipment by the participating police agencies. Our day-to-day office and staff funds are from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission. The Grays Harbor Sheriff's Office was awarded a one-year grant to provide office and staff. (A paid coordinator and an Administrative Supervisor)

We address other safety issues such as: Falls reductions (leading case of trauma death in person over age 65), Senior Citizen assistance, drowning prevention, alcohol/drug awareness, pedestrian safety, beach safety, and fire safety.

We accomplish these goals through a combination of public information and education (PIE) and in certain areas through increased enforcement efforts.

What have we done?

Established the Grays Harbor Traffic Safety Team whose mission is to interdict and arrest persons that drive while impaired by drugs or alcohol, reduce road rage incidents, perform traffic emphasis for specific violations and specific areas of high crash or potential injury incidents, such as School Zones.

We promote and encourage passenger/child restraint use. This team operates under an inter-local agreement with participation by all city, county and state enforcement agencies. Local tribal police operate in support of our efforts but are not included in the inter-local agreement. We field up to 20 extra officers a minimum of 6 times per year and as many as 10 times per year. As part of this effort we have mounted a PIE campaign that includes the 08 alcohol limit signs (57 in Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties).

With assistance from local agencies, The Safety Restraint Coalition and the WSTSC we have formed and maintained the Grays Harbor Passenger Safety Team (presently based at the Cosmopolis Police Dept. This team conducts training of child car seat inspectors. These inspectors offer free child car seat clinics that look for damaged, recalled or improperly installed car seats. Our teams have operated events throughout the county all with volunteer effort by the agencies and help from citizen members. We have had the support of local businesses such as Les Schwab Tires, and Sears.

The Transit Authority of Grays Harbor and local police departments and city halls have offered their facilities for our use. The team has distributed over 200 car seats to low-income families in the last year. We have distributed thousands of pieces of training material to the public in support of these efforts. WTSC, The Trauma Society, WDOH, General Motors, Children's Hospital, Harborview Hospital, West Region EMS and other sources, have provided these free of charge.

Most fire and police agencies are conducting free bike rodeos and helmet fitting to area children. Our EMS/Traffic Safety group has distributed over 3000 free bike helmets at various fairs, parks, and community events. Police Officers have been supplied with helmets to give to children they see riding without helmets, while on patrol. We have made available at no cost to the groups, 3 bike rodeo kids that are available to both private and public organizations. We have distributed thousands of pieces of training material in support of these efforts.

We created and distributed Tread to Safety brochures intended to educate our senior population about the need to avoid falls. In the Untied States approximately 20,000 people die each year as a result of falling. Of the several hundred thousand that fall approximately 50% are unable to return home and must go into long-term nursing care facilities. Working with SALT (Seniors and Law Enforcement Together) we have distributed hundreds of ID bracelets and dogtags to identify elderly or disabled people who have become lost.

Drowning prevention has been fought with a combination of educational materials, letters editor, and a sign project for our beaches.

RUAD: (Reduce Under Age Drinking) is a major project supported by the Task Force along with school officials. We have been addressing this issue through a combination of PIE and enforcement of a zero tolerance enforcement project. Each high school in GHC has received and continues to receive banners, videotapes and pamphlets concerning the risks of MIP and DUI issues.

A traffic safety curriculum has been made available to all school districts for ages K-12. This includes age appropriate videos handouts and giveaways such as bubble pens, bookmarks and light-up car key chains We continue developing new strategies to combat this persistent problem. We want to see injury and death free graduation seasons from now into the future.

We give presentations at service clubs, schools and local industries. We attend fairs and events with displays and education material for distribution free of charge to the public.

We feel our efforts have resulted in Grays Harbor County becoming a safer, healthier place to live.