Happy New Year. Hopefully you had a restful Christmas break and feel revived for the year ahead. As advised in the October edition, Water Safety New Zealand have begun their summer campaign. Unfortunately there were five recorded drownings over the Christmas and New Year break so it is a timely reminder to take extra care in and around the water.

February is Bike Wise Month. Check out the 'Events' section for a link to the website with instructions on registering and participating.

Despite a less than ideal start to the new year, the summer weather is showing signs of improving. So, before you start your outdoor activities, we have included some tips for safe DIY and summer barbeques.

We will be back again in April with more injury prevention news but, if you have any information to be included in future editions, send us an email. We are always happy to receive your contribution and/or feedback.

UMR Research were recently commissioned by ACC to provide an evaluation of the Safe Communities Accreditation programme. The report will be available in the 'News' section of the NZIPS website shortly.

Water Safety New Zealand have released the 2009/2010 Holiday Drowning Statistics. This information is available on their website.

This report presents the key findings about drug use and drug-related harm among New Zealand adults, from the 2007/08 New Zealand Alcohol and Drug Use Survey.

A partnership approach to tackling alcohol harm in New Plymouth has seen the local council collect a prestigious national award.

Wellington City Council have provided some simple fire safety tips for around the barbeque this summer.

On the evening of 27 February, the Safer Christchurch Interagency Group will be coordinating almost 40 organisations involved in road safety, crime and injury prevention throughout the city in an event to promote Celebrating a Safer Christchurch.

The event, which is organised in conjunction with the Police Emergency Services open day, will highlight the efforts of local organisations such as the NZ Fire Service, St John, ACC and many others.

Stalls will be spread through the city's main pedestrian mall and the public will have the chance to talk to each of the organisations and find out more about what they do. Demonstrations and competitions to entertain the whole family, as well as food and beverage stalls and live music will bring a festive atmosphere. Contact Nicola Martin for more details.

The Executive Board of the World Health Organisation is expected to make a decision shortly on the Strategy aimed at reducing the harmful use of alcohol.

The Department of Labour is reviewing its guidelines on the safe use of off-road vehicles. Consultation closes on 13 February 2010.

Following a restructure, the NZIPS Team have now joined the Injury Prevention Group within ACC.

Cory Stewart, IPC at Christchurch has moved to the Business Relationship Manager
role in Christchurch

Dee Young has completed her 12-month secondment to the Injury Prevention Group and has now returned to her role as Programme Manager with NZIPS. Judy Buchanan, who was caretaking Dee's role, has returned to her position with the Public Safety Group within the IP Group.

Register your event at the website and read about planned events during the month.

The themes for the 2010/2011 national campaign are Motor Vehicle Child Passenger Safety and Child Burns Injury Prevention/Fire Safety. Details of dates and venues are available on the Safekids website.

The conference will provide education and informative updates on psychiatric, behavioural and complex health components specific to individuals with Development Disabilities, and showcase best practices in the field.

This will be investigated jointly by the National Research Centre for Stroke, Applied Neurosciences and Neurorehabilitation at AUT and Waikato University. For more information, contact Pauline Lazarus.

Kathryn McPherson and her team at AUT are currently recruiting for this study in Auckland and Wellington. They are looking for people who have had a TBI in the last 6 months to 5 years. Read more about this and other projects being undertaken by the Person Centred Research Team at AUT.

This is a longitudinal study to be conducted over eight years lead by Professor Robyn Munford and Dr Jackie Sanders at Massey University looking at how young people in Aotearoa-New Zealand do in their lives and how things turn out for them. It aims to better understand what helps them thrive and survive and to learn about what types of experiences hold them back.

The NZ Transport Agency have produced the official New Zealand code for cyclists. This resource is available on their website.

The Plunket website includes some simple steps for keeping children safe around water.

In response to the sector's request that Injury data, particularly across government agencies, be more readily available and easier to access, Statistics NZ and key government agencies have developed an Injury information Portal. You can access the portal either via the Statistics NZ or NZIPS websites.

January 2010 newsletter from SWOV - the Dutch national road safety research institute.