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.   

Argus - USA Today story features Safety Village type driving simulators

An article this weekend in the Argus Leader from the USA Today hailed the virtues of Interactive driving simulators from Virtual Driver.  These are the same simulators used by the Sioux Empire Safety Village located at the W.H. Lyon Fairgrounds in Sioux Falls.

As pointed out in the article one of the great features of the simulators is that drivers learn consequences of driving while drinking or texting.  The drivers not only experience what it’s like to drive impaired and while texting using their own phone, but once things go awry the police show up on the video, they take you to jail or maybe the hospital, and you go to court.  You find out how much it’s going to cost you financially and how long a drunk driving charge stays on your record.

While these machines weren’t really meant to be mobile, the Sioux Empire Safety Village has figured out how to make them so.  We’ve been taking our three simulators to schools in Eastern South Dakota for a little more than a year.  More than 2,600 students have experienced Simulated Reality.  We work with the schools and local law enforcement to make this happen.  A simulator will be available to fair goers during the Sioux Empire Fair Aug. 4-12, if you want to try your hand at it.

For a look at the USA Today article, we have it posted on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/siouxempiresafetyvillage

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.  

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

Driving Simulator Update

Simulator Update 11/1/2011

A few days ago Jim Lake, General Manager at Vern Eide Motorcars asked me if the Driving Simulators were busy. When the Virtual Driver Interactive simulators were first purchased by Vern Eide for use by Safety Village, we estimated they would be in use 100 plus or minus days per year. Now six months after they hit the streets we know our estimate was wrong. We have logged almost 100 days of use in this period and approximately 1,000 people have experienced “simulated reality” without the consequences of reality. Mr. Lake was very pleased when he heard that they were on the road and in use so much. He was also very happy to hear that the State Health Dept. in collaboration with the Office of Highway Safety, Volunteers of America and Sioux Empire Safety Village had secured funding for a third simulator.

Most recently, McCook County Schools in Salem, South Dakota had two simulators for over three weeks. Understanding the importance of the lessons available on the simulators, the school decided to be very proactive and include all students from 7^th grade up. We are waiting for the actual number but it appears that Salem has seated at least 200 up and coming drivers.

On October 26th and 27^th the third simulator was showcased at the Tribal Transportation Safety Summit in Flandreau. There were representatives from many of the First Nation Tribes in South Dakota, a number of State Officials, Law Enforcement and a few Federal Program Administrators. More than 60 people were exposed to the simulators as Eric Majeres from Volunteers of America presented the program.

In November two more training sessions are planned. On the 8^th one simulator will be showcased to the SD Highway Patrol. On November 15^th a simulator will train other law enforcement agencies and staff from the Dept. of Health. We are also planning three other training activities in the region during the winter months.

Impact:  well the comments made by students and teachers from the schools indicate attitudinal shifts. The data collected giving names, ages, and driver’s license numbers if applicable is being shared with the State Office of Highway Safety. They will be able to study the data to determine if those who have taken simulator training have a lower rate of crashes or violations.

Again, from time to time we will keep all of our friends on Facebook and those of you who watch our website updated on this and other projects.

By the way, we are approaching the end of our fiscal year. If you have thought about making a donation to Sioux Empire Safety Village remember your donation is tax deductible. J Give us a call if you have any questions.

Dave Renli, Executive Director

Sioux Empire Safety Village

605-334-7233