The T2 Center is in its third year of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) grant funded Minority Task Force (MTF) on Occupant Protection. As part of a comprehensive approach to motor vehicle safety, the Task Force assists FDOT and other stakeholder organizations to increase safety belt usage in Florida’s African American and Hispanic populations, two groups that are over-represented in annual fatality statistics. The Task Force aims to do this by conducting pre-surveys, outreach, then post-surveys to determine the success of the outreach.

Minority Task Force efforts in Gainesville, Fla., are being led by Miguel Lugo, a UFTI doctoral student. He has recruited several undergraduate students to assist him with distributing educational materials and fliers for the outreach portion of the grant.

“This is a great experience for college students,” Lugo said. “Most of the areas that were chosen for the intervention sites are away from the university campus, so we’re discovering the other half of Gainesville. We also learn to communicate a simple message in a friendly, amicable way to the public: We want to make your community safer and this is how you do it.”

Lugo has also created a data collection application that can be used on a tablet to assist with pre-and post-surveys. Previously, surveys were completed by observers on-site, collecting data on seat belt usage and child restraints the old way – on paper. With the tablet and new software, the results of pre-surveys, outreach, and post-surveys that were accomplished this month in Gainesville were tallied the same day, eliminating weeks of hand-counting numbers on paper. Not only is tablet use faster, but they’re also able to minimize errors from the paper tally and count process.

Other updates related to the Minority Task Force Grant include an identified need for more Task Force groups, which would form a statewide Task Force Coalition. The Task Force began recruiting representatives from across the state to be part of the Coalition and conduct surveys and outreach in their respective counties. In January 2015, the T2 Center hosted a meeting with five prospective coalition members committed to joining the coalition, and they are eager to begin a Task Force in their own counties.

For more information on the Minority Task Force grant, contact Morgan Witter at the Florida T2 Center: 352.273.1687 or mdwitter@ufl.edu