Trauma Awareness
The nationally-recognized Palm Beach County Trauma System, which is overseen and funded by the Health Care District, is proud to raise awareness about trauma injury prevention through education and outreach initiatives.
Learn more about Trauma Awareness
Educating teens on safe driving behavior
Every spring, Trauma Hawk participates with other community partners in Shattered Dreams, a demonstration that shows local students the dangers of drinking and distracted driving on prom night.
Learn more about Shattered Dreams
Falls Awareness for Older Adults
The Health Care District of Palm Beach County is partnering with Palm Beach County Fire Rescue and the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners in providing education to help prevent falls among older adults, a growing cause of traumatic injuries.
Learn more about how you can prevent falls.
How you can prevent traumatic injury
Wear your seat belt (adults)
Seat belts reduce serious crash-related injuries and deaths by about 50% (NHTSA), yet millions of adults do not wear their seat belts on every trip. Air bags provide added protection but are not a substitute for seat belts in a crash. Using a seat belt on every trip is the most effective way to prevent injury and death in vehicle crashes. (source: CDC.gov)
For more information and statistics about seat belt use, visit the Centers for Disease Control web site.
Transport children in properly-installed restraint systems
Child safety seats reduce fatal injury in passenger cars by 71% for infants less than 1 year old and by 54% for toddlers 1 to 4 years of age. For children 4 to 7 years of age, booster seats have shown to reduce injury risk by 59% compared to safety belts alone. (source: SafeKids.org)
Ensuring your child restraint system is properly installed can mean the difference between life and death. Visit Safe Kids Palm Beach County for a schedule of locations to check that your child restraint system is installed properly.
Wear motorcycle and bicycle helmets
Helmets offer bicyclists and motorcyclists the best protection from head injuries resulting from crashes. Nearly 70% of all fatal bicycle crashes involve head injuries, yet only about 20% to 25% of all bicyclists wear bicycle helmets. Motorcycle crash statistics show that helmets are about 29% effective in preventing crash fatalities, meaning motorcycle riders wearing a helmet have a better chance of surviving a crash than riders without a helmet. (source: NHTSA.gov)
For more information on how to select a properly-fitting helmet, visit the Driving Safety section of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) web site.
Minimize distractions while driving
According to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, in 2022, distracted driving caused 53,596 crashes resulting in 2,574 serious injuries and 268 fatalities in Florida. Drivers under 30 represented almost 40% of all distracted driving-related crashes.
Distracted driving is anything that takes your hands off the wheel, your eyes off the road, or your mind off driving.
Common distractions include:
- Using a cell phone
- Texting
- Eating and drinking
- Talking to passengers
- Grooming
- Reading
- Using a navigation system
- Watching a video
- Changing the radio station
- Monitoring children
While driving, stop engaging in other activities, especially using your cell phone and other electronic devices. Your primary responsibility as a driver is to operate your vehicle safely.
Did you know…
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Reading a text message while driving distracts a driver for about five seconds. In five seconds, at 55 mph you will cover the length of a football field as if blindfolded
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Texting while driving makes you 23X more likely to have a crash, and teen drivers are four times more likely than adults to crash while texting
For more information about distracted driving, visit flhsmv.gov/distracted.