Capt. Sandra Tong: September is "Traffic Safety Month"

As I stated in last month's article, the SF Police Department, in concert with the American Automotive Association (AAA), is launching a traffic safety campaign in the Richmond District.

On Sept. 8, SF Police Chief Heather Fong will join Merry Banks, AAA special projects manager, and me for a kick-off event at the Richmond Recreation Center, located at 251 18th Ave. There will be a ceremony, barbecue and informational material available concerning child, pedestrian and motorist safety. Everyone is welcome to join us at the free event, which will run from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. The kick-off event is being generously sponsored by the San Francisco Police Officers' Association.

Traffic safety is often at the forefront of the community's concerns in the Richmond District. Therefore, in the spirit of the September campaign, I have gathered some relevant information that I would like to pass on. The majority of information and statistics was gleaned from two Web sites: www.aaafoundation.org and www.nhtsa.dot.gov.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported in 2002 that traffic collisions were the leading cause of death in the U.S. for people between the ages of 3 and 33. Historically, teens have the highest fatality and injury rates in traffic collisions. Some of the reasons for this startling statistic may be:
* Teens are more likely to disregard seat belts than adults;
* Teen drivers and their passengers are less likely to use their safety belts when they have been drinking;
* Male teens are less likely to wear seat belts than female teens.

As you can see, there is a direct relationship between teen death rates in traffic collisions and safety belt use. Safety belts should always be worn, even when riding in vehicles equipped with air bags, because air bags are designed to work with safety belts, not alone. When used properly, safety belts can reduce the risk of fatalities to front-seat passengers by nearly 50 percent. Also, remember, wearing safety belts is not an option - it is the law.

Driver inattention or "distraction" is a major contributing factor in traffic collisions. Officers, when conducting an investigation at the scene of an accident for the purposes of filing a report, should determine if one or more of the drivers, just prior to the collision had been distracted by something other than driving, which may have affected their ability to react or drive defensively.

The NHTSA estimates that driver inattention is responsible for 25 to 30 percent of reported traffic collisions (approximately 1.2 million per year). The most common distractions are passenger distractions (babies and children by far created a much greater distraction for drivers than did adult passengers), cell phone and pager use, eating and drinking, music, smoking and conversing.

Internal distractions include looking for change, picking something up, searching in the glove compartment, manipulating vehicle controls, etc. Look at this list of internal and external distractions again and make a mental note of how many of these distr-"actions" you engage in while driving. How many do you do at once?

When you are driving, all of your attention should be devoted to that activity. If you have infants or children in the vehicle that require attention, pull over and attend to their needs safely. There are many devices now available which allow you to use your cell-phone "hands-free." This is better than one hand on the wheel and one hand on the ear, but your focus is still diverted.

For your safety and the safety of everyone else on the road, pull over to place or answer telephone calls. We've all seen, heard about, fallen victim or feared the aforementioned encounters with aggressive drivers, otherwise known as "road-ragers."

Who are they? These are the drivers you see in your rear view mirror that appear to be just a few inches from your bumper. These are the drivers that have no regard for stop signs, right-of-ways or red lights. These are the drivers that make sudden and unsafe lane changes or abrupt stops and pass in the parking lane. These are the drivers that disregard all rules of the road and rules of courtesy in general. If you encounter an aggressive driver, try to get out of their way and don't allow them to drag you into a potentially dangerous and volatile situation. Some road rage encounters result in assaults.

Also, avoid eye contact and ignore inappropriate gestures. Otherwise, you may be tempted to return the insult, which will only escalate the situation. If you have a cell phone (and can do it safely) report the incident to the police. The dispatcher will want information, such as the vehicle's license plate number, a brief description of the driver and vehicle and the direction of travel. If an aggressive driver is involved in a crash, stand by at a safe distance to meet with a police officer. Your account of their behavior can be important to an investigation.

Road rage incidents pack a two-fold threat in that there is the chance that a driver with that level of aggression will get into a collision at some point and if you do get into a crash or near-miss, even if it's their fault, often this will incite them to commit an assault. So, please, follow the suggestions above to avoid a situation like this. Traffic safety is a field with an abundance of information and statistics. If you are interested in learning more, you can check out the Web sites listed above or enter some key words into your favorite Internet search engine. The only limit is your time.

I could keep going here, but I'll save some information for another day. Traffic Safety Starts With You The next Police Community Forum will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 20, at 1 p.m. at Richmond Police Station. The guest speaker will be Candy Acevedo from Consumer Action. The presentation will give safety tips regarding banking and long distance telephone services, and other consumer prevention tips.

Capt. Sandra Tong is the commanding officer at the Richmond Police Station.