Essentials of Public Health

BHE200 – Essentials of Public Health

Module 1 – Case Assignment

In this essay, I will discuss a major public health achievement and how the success of motor vehicle safety reduced the injuries and deaths of drivers and passengers that occurred from the Highway Safety Act of 1966.

1. Which one of the major achievements in public health identified by Bouldin, E. (2010) is most interesting to you?

One of the major achievements in public health that Erin Bouldin wrote that is most interesting to me is motor vehicle safety. Motor vehicle crashes are among the highest causes of death for people of all ages in the United States. It ranks third only to cancer and heart disease, and it is also preventable. The response to this public health issue was successful due to the technological advancement in motorization and showed a reduction in the rate of motor vehicle crashes in the United States since the 1960’s.

2. Briefly describe the achievement, in a paragraph or two?

Six times as many people drive today as in 1925, and the number of motor vehicles in the country has increased 11-fold since then to approximately 215 million. The number of miles traveled in motor vehicles is 10 times higher than in the mid-1920s. Despite this steep increase in motor-vehicle travel, the annual death rate has declined from 18 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in 1925 to 1.7 per 100 million VMT in 1997-a 90% decrease. (NCBI, Motor Vehicle Safety, 1999)

3. In what era did this achievement occur?

In 1966, the United States Congress responded with the National Highway Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act created a new program to address vehicle safety and allowed the federal government to implement laws regarding motor vehicle safety.

Today, we have laws and programs that have reduced drinking and driving, increased occupant restraint use, and had a major role in reducing motor vehicle injury and death. If we were still experiencing motor vehicle fatalities at the...