GEORGETOWN – As prom time nears local civic organizations are preparing programs and incentives to keep local students safe on the roads. The Brown County Safe Communities core group met Jan. 17 and discussed plans to again hold a High School Seat Belt Challenge that will reward students of participating schools for proper seat belt usage and inform participating student bodies about the necessities of seat belts.
This (2006) will be the third year the BCSC has organized the seat belt challenge and coordinator Sue Basta hopes the involvement from the community will be high this year.
“We try to involve as many high schools as possible,” said Basta. “The activity runs for six weeks.”
Basta said BCSC works with a faculty advisor and a student group, such as student council or the Southern Hills Career Center Safety Team, with the students taking on ownership in the project.
The Challenge has several aspects, one of which is awarding students who are buckled up when they arrive at school with coupons and door prizes provided by local businesses. The young drivers are inconspicuously checked by the participating student groups as they pull in.
Basta said the BCSC has asked local insurance agencies, car repair establishments, car dealerships and all of Brown County’s attorneys for door prize donations, and the group usually gets a good response from the businesses.
The Challenge also tries to engage students in the classroom by having the student groups make related announcements over the school’s public address system, as well as other activities specific to each school.
In addition, participating student groups use the surveys of students properly using seat belts to determine an average of seat belt usage for that particular school. Each school is surveyed at the beginning and the end of the six week program and the school with the highest rate of seat belt usage is awarded a plaque for the achievement.
Basta said the BCSC tries to organize the challenge in the months and weeks leading into prom season, so that the information is still fresh in students’ minds as they take the road for prom.
Also at the meeting:
• The BCSC discussed bringing together the Fatalities Review Committee to study three recent fatal crashes and four fatalities in the county. Basta said the Fatalities Review Committee is required to meet and discuss each road fatality in the county, but the committee has been unable to meet in the past two months because Basta was on leave recovering from surgery.
• The group discussed a new federal highway bill that rewards states for seat belt usage. The bill, which is set to take effect in 2006, takes sample studies (which will be done by the University of Miami) of seat belt usage by the average motorist in each state. States who post 85 percent usage for two consecutive years could qualify for extra funds and community resource items, such as radar guns and new police cars.
• The Career Center will hold a safety fair Feb. 16 and BCSC has committed to organizing a Teen Traffic Jeopardy game and the popular DUI Basketball event for the fair.
• The group discussed possible events for February, which is National 3-D (Drunk and Drugged Driving) Prevention Month. Proper child seat usage and instructional classes to train technicians to inspect child seats were also discussed.
