Feature
Making an Impact
ThinkFirst marks 20 years of serving the community
Last year marked the 20th year of ThinkFirst, an injury prevention program of the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery. In those 20 years, awareness of injury prevention measures has improved, but the need for education continues. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in 2008 that there was one fatality every 14 minutes and one injury every 13 seconds.
Daniel Hicks, Nancy Kyrouac, and Mary Kay Reed attended the ThinkFirst annual conference at Starved Rock State Park in June 2010. Numerous other Illinois ThinkFirst councils attended.
“Impaired and distracted driving continues to be the leading causes of traffic fatalities,” says ThinkFirst Program Coordinator Mary Kay Reed, R.N. She was the force behind the creation of the local program in 1989. At the time, she was working with SIU spinal surgeon Shannon Stauffer, M.D. Reed remembers: “During the summer of 1988, the area was in a drought, and people were diving into shallow water and breaking their necks. There were eight spinal injuries in two weeks. People were being killed by drunk drivers, and safety belts weren’t being consistently used.” She recalls one patient who dove into shallow water with his girlfriend. The young woman broke her neck and drowned. The young man broke his neck but was paralyzed. “His story was devastating. I wanted to do something.” Dr. Stauffer had heard about spinal injury prevention programs in other parts of the United States. With the support of SIU School of Medicine and the Illinois Department of Transportation, Reed initiated a similar program at SIU, which was titled Risky Business in its early years.
Now known as ThinkFirst, The SIU program is part of a network of other ThinkFirst chapters throughout the nation. Reed, Community Affairs Specialist Danny Hicks, and Educational Coordinator Nancy Kyrouac, are reaching 15,000 individuals each year in 40 counties. Reed estimates that after 20 years, about 300,000 people have heard the message.
Reed reads an obituary of one of two high school students who died in an automobile accident just after Thanksgiving. “They weren’t wearing their seat belts,” Reed says. “Why?”
ThinkFirst held a “Spring into Safety” car seat check point and health fair in April 2010 at SIU School of Medicine. The Springfield police department organized an obstacle course to demonstrate the hazards of impaired and distracted driving.
With that tragedy, the ThinkFirst team sadly adds another heartbreaking story to its collection of motor vehicle crashes, injuries, and lost lives. While the team can cite statistics and driving rules all day long, the group agrees that it’s the victim stories that impact the audience. “Patients think that if you got this badly injured you died,” Reed says. “The whole idea of disability and life changes doesn’t occur to them until it’s too late. When we teach them how to do personal care such as using a catheter or wheelchair, that’s when they realize it’s permanent.”
Danny Hicks is the program’s full-time victim speaker. Hicks was a passenger in a drunk driver’s speeding car that lost control and crashed in July 1990. The driver was killed, and Hicks, then 18, was paralyzed. Motor vehicle crashes are the No. 1 cause of death for ages 15-24. ThinkFirst held six crash re-enactment last year viewed by more than 2,600 students.
Hicks speaks often with injury victims recovering in the hospital. He says he is getting asked new questions, such as “How am I going to text? How am I going to play Wii?”
While ThinkFirst was founded on the dangers of driving intoxicated and without safety belts, other risks have evolved the breadth of the presentation. “Beyond drinking and driving, we talk about sports-related injuries, falls, violence, shaken baby syndrome, ATVs, speeding, and distracted driving. We present a public health message, not just a medical message,” Kyrouac says.
Texting and GPS use are among the new distractions for drivers that are becoming an increasingly dangerous. “There are three methods of distraction,” Kyrouac explains. “Visual, auditory, and physical. “Cell phone use distracts all three ways. Kids don’t realize the risks of just being in the car with their peers,” Kyrouac says. “People don’t think about the other driver and what distractions he or she may be doing: texting, eating, talking on the phone.”
“Texting is deadly,” Hicks adds. “With alcohol, it’s a deadly combination.”
ThinkFirst continues to evolve its message based on the objectives of traffic safety leaders. “Leading causes of death determine where injury prevention education is most needed,” Reed says. “In the early 1980s, teen-driving and not using safety belts were the highest factors in traffic-related injuries and deaths.” Education and legislation have made a difference. Since the strengthened graduated driver licensing (GDL) law went into effect in 2008, Secretary of State Jesse White reports teen driving deaths have decreased by 56 percent.
Child passenger safety laws expanded the message to the importance of child safety seats, with a more recent emphasis on booster seats. “According to the latest IDOT figures, children ages 4 to 8 are at risk because of improper, or no use of booster seats,” Reed says. “We stress to parents how important is the use of these seats.” All of the ThinkFirst staff are child passenger safety seat technicians – and last year assisted with 33 safety events to check car seats. Last spring, ThinkFirst held a “Spring into Safety” event at SIU School of Medicine that included drunk driving simulations and car seat checks. They hope to do one this spring as well. Last year, they checked more than 500 car seats and distributed more than 300 booster seats.
In addition to working with IDOT, ThinkFirst partners with the Secretary of State’s office, and law enforcement to help them get their message out to schools and the community. The program also participates in numerous youth programs, health fairs, and community events, including bicycle rodeo events. Hicks is active in Victim Impact Panels, a program of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, during which first-time DUI offenders listen to relatives of people killed in accidents or those personally injured. Hicks told his story 25 times to these panels in eight Illinois counties last year. “As far as I know, I’m the only survivor of a crash to tell a first-hand story.” Hicks, a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, a bass singer in The Land of Lincoln Barbershop Chorus, married Brenda Koke, R.N., in January 2011.
ThinkFirst also is active with a program called “Operation Teen Safe Driving,” which began in Tazewell County after 15 teenagers were killed in car crashes in 15 months. No traffic-related fatalities have occurred in the county since the program began. The program expanded statewide in 2009. The students have been very integral to creating traffic safety slogans (“I practice safe text” “Don't crack up, buckle up”) and give-away items such as toy cell phones with distracted driving messages.
The group is also very active with the other ThinkFirst chapters in northern and southern Illinois. In June 2010, the Think-First Illinois chapters met for their annual conference, which brought together victim speakers and chapter directors from throughout the state. “The conference helps us become a more cohesive group,” Reed says.
The team takes great pride in being a unique feature of the Division of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at SIU School of Medicine. “With programs like ThinkFirst and others, SIU School of Medicine contributes to health-care education in the community in ways no other organization does,” Kyrouac says. “This allows people to make informed choices when they get in the car.”
IDOT reports that in 1985, only 16 percent of front seat occupants used safety belts. By 2009, 92 percent did. “Why?” Kyrouac asks. “It’s because of the laws but also because of education programs like ours. The education we provide lets people make informed choices about their behavior when they get in the car. Just as you need repeated doses of vaccines to prevent disease, so teenagers need repeated doses of our message. We’re the “booster shot” that keeps people safe.”
IDOT’s Illinois Crash Data compared 2009 figures to 2005 figures and reported that crashes decreased 31 percent, injuries dropped 21 percent, and deaths dropped 33 percent. “When we see the fatality rates decrease, we are proud that we are a part of that. Injury prevention saves lives,” Reed says.
Fatalities have dropped, but car crashes are still the number one cause of deaths for teens. “It was that way 20 years ago, and unfortunately, it is the same today,” Reed shakes her head. “Twenty years ago my biggest fear was that something would happen to my kids. Twenty years later, I’m still scared of the same thing. Even though we try to prevent it, kids are still dying; people are still being injured; it still happens. We’ve had incredible success and so many positive outcomes, but when a local crash or fatality happens, that brings us back to why we do what we do.”