It is no secret that auto accidents are incredibly costly in terms of money and human lives. States and the federal government often run campaigns to help target safe driving and to eliminate factors that lead to accidents.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ran a campaign for auto accidents by making them a Winnable Battle, which is a public health situation the CDC feels it can make significant steps in ending. Some examples of current Winnable Battles include antibiotic resistance, HIV elimination, heart attack prevention and opioid overdoses.
The auto accident campaign
Auto accidents were part of the CDC Winnable Battles program for 2015. The CDC chose it because of the high costs and loss of life due to accidents. It also felt it had some promising research showing there were implementable steps, such as stiffer seat belt laws, ignition interlock use and graduate driver’s licenses, that could make a large difference.
In creating the goals, the CDC decided its campaign would focus on increasing the use of seat belts, decreasing drunk driving, increasing vehicle safety and gathering more data through better methods to provide important prevention information.
The effects of the campaign
The CDC’s efforts to help lower the number of deaths in auto accidents did not make an exceptional impact in 2015. That year had more deaths than other years since 2008. The campaign did help to decrease costs and injury numbers.
The goal of the CDC was to reduce the deaths per 100,000 for 2015 to 9.5 based on 2014 being at around 10. However, the actual number of deaths per 100,000 in 2015 was about 12.
