Over recent years it has been possible to continually reduce the number of people involved in road traffic accidents, particularly in respect of fatalities. However, the overall number of road and sports casualties remains too high and the 18 — 24 year olds still top all age groups. The Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (bfu) hopes to achieve further progress with suitable measures within the next five to ten years. This not only requires general endeavour in the field of accident prevention, but also the implementing of specific measures where priorities are clear. One of these priorities is presented by young people in the above mentioned age group in both sport and road traffic sectors. Developing preventative measures for young people requires an unbiased assessment of their attitude to risk. Taking risks is intrinsic to the development of young people, having a clear purpose as amongst other things, it is endorsed by their peers. Smoking, drinking, testing personal ability, dangerous behaviour in sport or on the roads etc. cannot therefore be interpreted - a priori - as a result of misguided development. This behaviour rather indicates active conflict both with the norm and with adult attitudes and is necessary for the development of independent orientation models. This means that all attempts to reduce risks to young people’s health must be oriented towards their world of experiences and actual development processes. Thus prevention can only be successful if young people agree with the aims of the preventative work and can expect real benefits. This can be achieved if they are regarded less as a target group and more as a partner group, able to play an active role in the creation and accomplishment of suitable measures. The main element of the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (bfu) «Dummies Never Die!» campaign is a cinema spot which was tested twice in the development phase. The results were discussed during project meetings with the intention of optimising understanding and acceptance of the spot. The main characters are three anti-heroes known as «The Crew». The trio is particularly risk-loving protagonists whose physical attributes allow them to survive specific accidents or dangerous situations unscathed. «Crash» specializes in collisions, «Flash» is immune to drugs, alcohol, disco lights and noise, while «Splash» is guaranteed unsinkable as his body possesses its own aircushion. The spot shows the gang of three, led by «Crash», involved in a crash situation. The whole campaign lasted two and a half years (autumn 1998 to spring 2001). It consisted of five 14-day promotions during which the cinema spot was shown while the predetermined main themes of road traffic and sport were handled by the media (radio, TV, flyers, press). In addition, the cinema spot was shown in all cinemas during June 1999 and June 2000 with posters also being used to draw attention to it. The objectives of the campaign were derived from causes of accidents whereby these had to correspond to the possibilities of a campaign. The main aim was to make young people aware of risks involved in road traffic and sport. The target group should be brought to recognise risks and be able to assess risks both to themselves and others. The implementation of self-exploration was formulated as a further aim. The target group should be encouraged to recognise their own ability and qualities in the field of competence (in sport and road traffic), perception of danger and behavioural tendencies. However the campaign should not only promote a differentiated awareness but also stimulate the creation of solutions. Further subsidiary aims were therefore to motivate young people to think about possible measures and to develop strategies for risk avoidance. Within the framework of process evaluation, campaign progress and whether problems arose in the implementation of the concept as initially planned were investigated. The aim of the results evaluation was to clarify whether the campaign had achieved an increase in the target group’s awareness of risks in road traffic and sport and whether it had led the young people to realistic self-assessment in these sectors. The evaluation study was planned as a quantitative, quasi-experimental cross-section study with several appraisal periods. Thus it was necessary to interview a different group of young people for each appraisal. The uniformity required for the random sample was striven for by drawing representative samples from a population of 18 — 24 year olds for each appraisal. This “uniformity” should therefore be guaranteed not by personal identity but by parallelism of the groups in respect of main characteristics. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting