FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, September 29, 1998
Contact: Tim Hurd
Tel. No.: (202) 366-9550
NHTSA 66-98

Transportation Secretary Slater Announces
Grant to Hispanic Coalition
For National Traffic Safety Program

U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater today announced a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) grant of $225,000 to the National Coalition of Hispanic Health and Human Services Organizations in Washington, D.C., for traffic safety programs with the potential of reaching millions of Hispanic people in the United States.

"Safety is President Clinton’s highest transportation priority," Secretary Slater said. "This grant will help prevent injuries and save lives by providing important information about traffic safety to Hispanic people in this country."

With funds from the grant, the National Coalition of Hispanic Health and Human Services Organizations will:

• provide technical assistance to NHTSA in the development of culturally and linguistically appropriate traffic safety messages for the Hispanic community, and appropriate delivery mechanisms for those messages;
• expand its National Hispanic Traffic Safety Program (NHTSP), using case studies of current successful projects combined with elements of NHTSA’s Safe Communities program, to Hispanic communities to support states engaged in Buckle Up America programs;
• bring together a coalition of organizations that target the Hispanic population to assist in the expansion of their NHTSPs and in the development of appropriate messages and delivery mechanisms; and
• conduct a national traffic safety outreach program, focusing on NHTSA's priority program initiatives such as Buckle Up America periodic mobilizations, Drunk and Drugged Driving Awareness Month, and Child Passenger Safety Week.

"We are pleased to continue to work with the coalition in a life-saving movement," said NHTSA Administrator Ricardo Martinez, M.D. The grant funds will be provided to the coalition through September 1999.

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Briefing Room