The Southwest Michigan Safe Communities Steering Committee of Van Buren County is a coalition of the Van Buren/Cass District Health Department, the Van Buren County Road Commission, the Michigan State Police and the Van Buren County Sheriff's Office along with local City, Village & Township Police Departments to improve highway safety in Van Buren County.

Annually, over 3,000 drivers in the United States between the ages of 16 and 21 years of age die because of car accidents. Within the state of Michigan, a disproportionate number of young drivers, ages 15 to 24 are involved in car accidents. Although this age group represents only 13.72 percent of the State’s total population, these drivers are involved in 23.91 percent of the car accidents. More importantly, the drivers in this age group are involved in 23.9 percent of the fatal crashes with one-half of them being between 15 and 19 years of age.

In 2003 we conducted our first seat belt challenge with the assistance of AAA’s Kalamazoo office. We held the challenge between Paw Paw High School and Mattawan High School here in Van Buren County. This year for the second year in a row we conducted seat belt challenges that involved all the high schools in our county and have seen the seat belt usage increase in one school from a low of 72.5% to its current 97%. Of our 11 high schools 5 of them from 96% to 98% seat belt usage and last year our program was honored by the Governors Traffic Safety Advisory Commission with its Outstanding Traffic Safety Achievement Award for our success in increasing the seat belt usage of teenagers in Van Buren County.

We decided to expand upon that success with the addition to our seat belt program with a Education & Prevention of Impaired Crashes program using a GEM car(Global Electric Motorcars) as a demonstration vehicle. This vehicle will be taken to our area high schools, community events & festivals. It will be used in conjunction with pairs of Drunk Busters Impairment Goggles worn by the driver and passengers to simulate the effects of alcohol on someone operating a vehicle. The driver of the GEM car will attempt to negotiate a course comprised of safety cones to demonstrate the difficulty of operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

We have managed through a grant from the Office of Highway Safety Planning and a donation from AAA of Michigan to acquire most the funding for the GEM car. The remaining balance was contributed by Don Sealy’s Auto Dealership in Kalamazoo, Attorney Richard Migila, Lane Automotive, Daimler Chrysler & Village Market. Our Impairment Goggles that we use in the program were furnished by Drunk Busters Of America, L.L.C. An enclosed trailer to transport the car and our program equipment is being donated by OK Distributors. The Car and trailer will have graphics furnish by Sporting Image of Paw Paw.


We all feel strongly that a program like ours can save the lives and prevent serious injuries to many of our young drivers. These are our kids, our neighbor’s kids and maybe even your kids. If they’re not driving then they might be riding in the car with an impaired driver approaching them.
Please feel free to contact myself or any member of the steering committee with any questions, comments or suggestions you might have. We would be happy to go into greater detail about our program and its goals.





The EPIC II Program was the recipient of Governor's Traffic Safety Advisory Commission Traffic Safety Award for its outstanding contribution to traffic safety in 2006. Jeff Mitchell accepted the award at the luncheon that was held as the final event of the 12th Annual Michigan Traffic Safety Summit that was held on March 13-15, 2007 at the Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center in East Lansing. Jeff Mitchell was also one of the speakers who gave a presentation at the workshop titled, "Creating Community Success: Effectively Engaging Partners."





The training was held at the Kingdom Indoor Center 8151 Merchant Place Portage, MI 49002, from 12:00 to 15:00.

News coverage of the training can be viewed at the links listed below.
Kalamazoo Gazette Coverage http://www.mlive.com/kzgazette/video/flash/index.ssf?20070323epic
WWMT TV/DT Coverage http://www.wwmt.com/onset?id=35016&template=video_player.html




The EPIC II program was one of the events at the "Lead The Way" Great Sauk Trail Council Camporee.
The Michigan International Speedway was home to hundreds of Boy Scouts from Oct 5th-7th. The were numerous activates for the scouts to participate in including the EPIC II GEM car.




Number of people who have seen our program:
About 2022 kids have seen the EPIC II presentation, and about 1761 kids
have also been present for the Trama Nurses Talk Tough presentation.
An estimated 2,603 kids have ridden in the car.

Number of people trained to do the EPIC II program:
Police Officers (PD, MSP, SD) - 55
Civilians (Safety Pro's, Health Department, Driving Instructors, Health Care Providers, School Personnel, etc.) - 11
SADD Chapter's personnel - 19
Total - 85

Number of schools we have taken the program to: 12
Branch Area Career Center - Criminal Justice Students
Paw Paw High School
South Central High School
Brandywine High School
Bridgeman High School
Lawton High School
Hartford High School
Portage High School
Bloomingdale High School
Saint Joseph High School
Kalamazoo Christian High School
Lake Michigan Catholic High School

Number of other groups we have introduced the program to: 14
Van Buren County Grad Bash
Michigan Youth Leadership Academy (3 times)
Bridgeman Youth Street Dance
Lane Automotive Car Show
Portage Parades (2 times)
Kalamazoo Parade
Paw Paw Grape & Wine Festival
Bings Driving School (3 Classes)
Van Buren Intermediate School District Principles Meeting
Berrien County Fair
Muskegon County Road Commission Safety Conference.
Traffic Safety Committee Meeting -Southfield
Wayne County Traffic Safety Committee
Southwest Traffic Safety Committee Meeting


For additional information, please contact:

Sgt. James Campbell
Traffic Services Division
Traffic Crash Reconstruction
(269) 657-6081
(269) 657-7571 Fax
(269) 506-3756 Cell
Campbelj@michigan.gov


Jeffery Mitchell, Special Operations Officer
Van Buren County Road Commission
325 West James Street
Lawrence, MI 49064
Office - (269) 674-8011, Fax (269) 674-3770
Email: vbcrcmitchell@comcast.net

Or

Terri Allabaugh, RN
Trauma and Burn Prevention Coordinator
Bronson Methodist
(269)341-8587 office
(269)388-0043 pager
allabauc@bronsonhg.org