Injury prevention as a public health discipline achieved more widespread visibility with the publication of the National Academy of Sciences report Injury in America in 1985. While new specialties, such as violence prevention, have arisen, so has the recognition that injury prevention efforts are most effective when they draw upon a wide range of intervention strategies, academic disciplines, public agencies, and private organizations. Both traffic safety and public health professionals want to reduce the number and severity of injuries that result from motor vehicle collisions, including those that involve pedestrians and bicyclists. Working together toward this common goal can help professionals in both types of agencies do their jobs more effectively, reach more people with their programs, and have a greater impact in promoting traffic safety and reducing motor vehicle-related injuries. There is no one model of inter-agency collaboration that will fit every situation.
Many elements affect the ways in which agencies collaborate.
The focus of the issue will be on five regions, each of which has taken a different approach to collaborative activities. Each region is the site of periodic meetings in which traffic safety and injury prevention professionals share information and resources. Many of these efforts rely on in-kind contributions of time and resources from participating agencies, and the personal energy of their members, although a few have received small grants for specific projects, and occasional contributions of space and resources from private sources. Participants in such collaborative activities are universally enthusiastic. Collaboration was found to provide benefits not just across states, but within states.