Sioux Empire Safety Village

Bumbo Baby Seat Recall

The popular Bumbo baby seat is being voluntarily recalled because babies have fallen out of them fracturing their skulls.  About 4 million of the seats have been sold in the U.S.  More than 100 incidents of babies being injured by falling out of the baby seats have been reported in the U.S. 

If you have a Bumbo baby seat stop using it until you get a free repair kit.  Don’t return the baby seat to the store.  The recall is not pulling the product off the market but adding a safety feature…basically a seat belt.  Owners of Bumbo baby seats should go to www.bumbousa.com to get the free repair kit.

To safely use the Bumbo baby seat:

 -always use the restraint belt

-only use the seat on the floor or level ground surface

-never use on elevated surfaces such as chairs or tables

-never leave the child unattended

-never use the seat in or near water

Remember a baby’s head is his heaviest part of his body.  When he loses his balance, his head often hits the floor first.

4th of July Deadliest Day on U.S. Roads

As we hit the road to celebrate the birth of our nation, who would think this is the most dangerous day of the year to be on the road?  But according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety the 4th of July is just that.

As we warn our teens to be careful with fireworks and around water add to the list driving.  Teens make up nearly 10 percent of the 4th of July fatalities.  We all know about the dangers of drinking an driving, but another contributing factor to teen crashes is texting while driving.  Research funded by the Allstate Foundation shows that 49 percent of teens report that texting is their biggest distraction behind the wheel.

Of course, it’s not just teens.  In 2010, more than 3,000 people died in crashes that involved distracted driving with another 416,000 injured.  Distractions range from eating to talking on a cell phone to passengers in the vehicle.  It’s amazing how much a small distraction increases your risk for a crash.  Here are some examples: Reaching for a cell phone increases your risk for a crash by nine times.  Texting increases your risk by 23 times.  Taking your eyes off the road for five seconds at 55 mph is like driving the length of a football field blindfolded.  One text behind the wheel equates to four beers (.08 blood alcohol level).

Please do your part to keep our roads safe this 4th of July.  Don’t text and drive and don’t drink and drive. 

Have a happy and safe Independence Day from the Sioux Empire Safety Village.   

Boxelder Job Corps Students learn consequences of driving drunk and texting.

Students at Boxelder Job Corps got a taste of what it’s like to drive drunk and text and drive, but they weren’t really on the road or drinking and driving.  Instead they were learning the consequences of risky driving by participating in Simulated Reality, the virtual reality driving simulator program operated by the Sioux Empire Safety Village.  Dave Renli, Executive Director of the Safety Village, took one of the Safety Village’s three simulators to the Job Corps for a week.  This is the first time the simulators have been in the western part of South Dakota.  To understand how the simulators work, you almost have to try them out yourself.  The next best thing is to watch it being done.  That’s why I’m including a link to a story done by KEVN out of Rapid. http://www.blackhillsfox.com/2012/06/13/New-simulator-mimics-distracted-driving The simulators have been in use for a little more than a year now and have been a big hit.  Mainly we take them to schools.  More than 3,000 people have “Experienced the Reality without the Reality” while driving the simulators.  If you are interested in scheduling the simulators, please contact us at (605) 334-7233.  

Distracted Driving: How big is the problem?

• In 2009, more than 5,400 people died in crashes that were reported to involve a distracted driver and about 448,000 people were injured.¹
• Among those killed or injured in these crashes, nearly 1,000 deaths and 24,000 injuries included cell phone use as the major distraction.¹
• The proportion of drivers reportedly distracted at the time of a fatal crash has increased from 7 percent in 2005 to 11 percent in 2009.¹
• When asked whether driving feels safer, less safe, or about the same as it did five years ago, more than 1 in 3 drivers say driving feels less safe today. Distracted driving—cited by 3 out of 10 of these drivers—was the single most common reason given for feeling less safe today.³
• A recent CDC analysis examined the frequency of two major distractions—cell phone use and texting—among drivers in the United States and seven European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom). Results of the analysis included the following findings:⁷

http://www.cdc.gov/Motorvehiclesafety/Distracted_Driving/index.html 

What do we mean by Sioux Empire?

We’ve been asked a number of times, what do you mean by “Sioux Empire” in your company name Sioux Empire Safety Village? In answering that I decided to look at the activity from last summer and this fall for clarification. During June – October the driving simulators were in Vermillion, Madison, Estelline, Salem, Flandreau and Sheldon, IA, plus a number of venues in Sioux Falls. During the Sioux Empire Fair in August we have a record of people from Aberdeen, Baltic, Beresford, Big Stone City, Brandon, Brookings, Canton, Colman, Egan, Parkston, Stanley County, Cedar Falls, IA; Cherokee, IA; Rock Valley, IA; Waverly, IA; Pipestone, MN; Worthington, MN; Wisner, NB; and Laredo, TX. As we look at our service region it seems to include primarily a 100 mile radius of Sioux Falls including parts of Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska.

BUT there is a second layer of our outreach which needs to be mentioned. In the month of October people from the Philippines, Canada, Brazil, Australia, India, Russia, Ireland, China, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Pakistan, Norway and United Arab Emirates spent time on our webpages.

Within the United States, people from 32 states literally from coast to coast viewed information on our webpage. Recently contacts from Bloomington, MN and Lincoln, NE ordered videos and or booklets from our products page.

Yes, most of our programs and projects take place within 100 miles of Sioux Falls. And yes, we would love to partner with people in this area for programs and projects that will reduce unintentional injury and death. If you or your organization is looking for collaborative partners in injury prevention or if you have been affected by the projects and programs of Sioux Empire Safety Village and would like to “pay-forward” so that others can be helped please contact us.

If you are from outside our normal service area that doesn’t mean that we aren’t interested in working with you. If you have an idea or a need, let us know.

Dave Renli, Executive Director

Sioux Empire Safety Village.

info@safetyvillage.org