Why the FAST
Workbook?
• Parents/guardians must be involved in relaying safety messages
to their children to help them adopt and understand the information.
Children learn activities, such as reading and writing, with
guidance from their parents/guardians.
• Families must work together to master safe pedestrian, bicycling,
and vehicle safety skills, just like they did when their children
learned to read.
Parents/guardians must demonstrate safe traffic behaviors, to
ensure the success of their children. A child’s education will be
most effective if his or her parents/guardians reinforce the messages
he or she learns in school, through books, and in the community.
• Unintentional injuries are the number one health risk facing school-age
children (NHTSA, 1999).
Motor vehicle, bicycle, and pedestrian incidents are the leading
causes of unintentional injuries and deaths to children age 15 and
under.
• Children age 15 and under represent 20 percent of the total injuries
in Oregon (DHS, 1997).
These numbers show Oregonians that action must be taken to reduce
these preventable tragedies. It’s important to recognize that these
injuries and deaths are preventable if children and families adopt
safe traffic behaviors.
• Education in schools alone will not take care of the rising issue
of traffic related deaths and injuries because parents/guardians
are not direct recipients of the information.
The FAST workbook was developed
to address the gap in the delivery of this important information
to families.
• Research demonstrates the need to change our injury prevention
education efforts by shifting the focus from the child alone to
the parent/guardian and the child.
When families are involved in their children’s education, everyone
will benefit. This will contribute to the decline in the number
of traffic-related, preventable injuries and deaths to children.
Visit these links to find out more about FAST.
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