PITTSBURG, Kan. — Law enforcement personnel have determined that in the past year, 300 more high-school students in Southeast Kansas began wearing their seat belts as the result a student-led campaign that was piloted last year in Crawford County.
But the good news doesn’t end there: Crawford County Sheriff Sandy Horton said dozens of other Kansas high schools are adopting the Seat Belts Are for Everyone program, which means more than 12,000 Kansas high-school students will participate this school year
This week, assemblies slated for Tuesday at Pittsburg High School and Wednesday at St. Mary’s-Colgan will be designed to renew student enthusiasm and build on what was started last year. Students who have pledged to wear their seat belts will be eligible for $25 gift cards and will get a look at the Kansas Highway Patrol’s “Convincer.”
This program stands to make a difference in a county that has the lowest rate of seat belt use in a state that is well below the national rate to begin with. In 2007, an estimated 75 percent of Kansans used their seat belts, while the U.S. rate was 82 percent. Crawford County came in dead last, out of 20 Kansas counties reporting, at 53 percent.
Horton’s statistics concerning Kansas teens are especially sobering: Forty-seven teens died in car crashes in 2007, and 74 percent of them were not wearing seat belts — deaths that Horton called “needless.”
On the other hand, of those who came out of crashes unharmed, 91 percent were wearing seat belts.
The idea for the S.A.F.E. program was hatched two summers ago with the help of a student committee with representatives from all Crawford County high schools.
A few more meetings down the road, the group had chosen a name for the project and designed a pledge card that includes promises to buckle up and makes students who sign it eligible for prizes.
Committee members also learned how to conduct seat belt surveys in the parking lots of their schools, which is done three times during the course of a school year. The first, a baseline survey, is taken in November to determine how many students wear seat belts.
The second survey is done unannounced a few months later to ascertain how many students have started wearing seat belts as a result of the program. Soon after, law enforcement steps in; tickets are given to violators.
The third and final survey is conducted in the spring to determine the project’s impact. Students from the school with the highest overall seat belt usage and the school with the most improved rate are eligible for grand prizes such as laptops and iPods.
But the real prize, Horton said, is the lives saved. Two local high schools saw seat belt usage increase 17 percent last year, he said.
“When you say 17 percent, that means 17 out of 100 students that if they were in a crash, would have a much better chance of surviving,” Horton said.
