Community-Based “Flashing” to Increase Safety Belt Use

A community-based prompting intervention for safety belt promotion was field tested at two parking lots on a large university campus. The intervention involved a coed displaying a flash card that read, “Please buckle up —I care” to unbuckled drivers of vehicles exiting the parking lots. If the driver buckled up, the “flasher” flipped the card over and displayed the message, “Thank you for buckling up.” Drivers who were already wearing a shoulder belt when exiting the parking lot were shown only the “thank you” side of the flash card. Simultaneous ABAB paradigms over a 4-week period demonstrated functional control of safety belt use at each parking lot by this prompting intervention. A total of 1,260 flashing episodes occurred and overall compliance with the buckle-up request was 25%. Important issues for follow-up research are discussed, especially the need for further study of the post-intervention, residual effect of prompting that was observed.