The study, part of an overall campus outreach and research program to aid Spanish-speaking, low-literacy farm workers who work and drive in California, will be published this month in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention. UC Davis researchers say they believe it is the first such study to look at California farm workers' driving and car safety attitudes and habits.

The findings show clear and specific evidence of a serious gap between "saying and doing," say Martha Stiles, research associate, and James Grieshop, a Cooperative Extension specialist, in the campus's human and community development department.

"Given the record of the Hispanic driving population in California and the Central Valley, where these studies were conducted, it is clear that the existence of this gap must be taken very seriously," Stiles and Grieshop say in the paper.

To overcome the gap between saying and doing, the researchers suggest three elements: driver education materials that are culturally sensitive; easy access to child car seats; and acceptable, comprehensible training strategies.

Law enforcement agencies, Hispanic community groups and public health agencies must work together to design and distribute child safety seats to these workers and their families, the authors say. "The creative and effective use of these elements . . . can and will influence the positive outcomes of any driver-safety program targeted to the large farm worker population," the researchers say. Otherwise, "the gap between 'saying and doing' will persist."

The researchers conducted the study both through face-to-face interviews in Spanish with farm workers and through surveys of vehicles observed returning home to labor camps at the end of the work day.

Most surprising of all the findings, Stiles says, is the non-use of restraints for children and adults. "I expected to find a reduced use for adults, but not as low as what we found. This shows a specific need for a specific group of people."

Upon embarking on the study, the researchers found California Highway Patrol statistics (1995) show that while Hispanics comprise 30 percent of the population in California's Central Valley, approximately 45 percent of crashes and 60 percent of DUI arrests involve Hispanic drivers and passengers.

In detail, the UC Davis researchers found in their survey of 167 farmworkers that:

-- The majority of those interviewed said they wore safety belts consistently. Yet when observed returning from work, only 37 percent of vehicle occupants were using seat belts, compared with 68 percent of vehicle occupants in the general public, according to a NHTSA survey.

-- While most of the households studied had children, and 42 percent of the households had children under 4 years old, researcher observations showed that regardless of the number of children under 40 pounds and/or 4 or younger, only one car seat was available in each car. "In 66 percent of the cases where a single child was carried, no car seat was used. In two-thirds of the situations where two children were carried, no car seats were seen," the researchers report. Yet, when interviewed, 75 percent of those with children said they used child-safety seats.

Reasons why safety belts or car seats weren't being used reflect a lack of knowledge or understanding of the risks involved with not utilizing the safety devices, Stiles and Grieshop say. "Much of the resistance to using the safety devices is ingrained in basic behaviors and beliefs. These workers and their families believe that drivers are safer on rural roads than elsewhere. Because of the reduced traffic pressures, drivers also tend to relax their safety skills," the researchers say.

Yet, in fact just the opposite is true: Californians traveling on rural roads in the Central Valley are three times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than on urban thoroughfares, the researchers say.

"Special efforts must be made to increase awareness not only of the risk to themselves but those who ride with them," the researchers say. "Cultural considerations are important in designing an approach for this group."

The study was funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the California Office of Traffic Safety.

As part of the overall project, the researchers oversaw the development a few years ago of an educational driver safety game -- La Loteria del Manejo Seguro -- modeled after a popular Mexican game. The game includes 54 brightly colored cards depicting traffic signs and safe driving behavior. In addition, the researchers have begun a program of safe driving training held at farm sites, labor centers, and traffic violators schools, among other locations.