By Sandy Horton
In early 2008, Dave Corp with the Kansas
Traffic Safety Office met with me regarding the low seatbelt compliance rate
for Crawford County. At the time I was
Sheriff of Crawford County and surprised to hear we had the lowest compliance
rate of 53% overall and only 61% of teen drivers buckling up. This information
came from traffic surveys conducted in 20 of the most populated counties in
Kansas.
From that conversation an idea was born and
after several meetings with school administrators and students, SAFE (Seatbelts
Are For Everyone) was created in all six of the Crawford County high schools
serving 1,280 students.
Students quickly bought into the program and
essentially built SAFE from the ground up including picking out the name. The
pledge card used now statewide was actually designed by a Pittsburg High School
student. The students were soon taught how to take the seatbelt survey from the
school parking lot and present safety messages to the student body. SAFE soon
expanded to other school districts and continues to grow every year.
In 2012, my last year as sheriff before
retiring and continuing in my position of Executive Director of the Kansas
Sheriffs Association, the teen seatbelt compliance rate in Crawford County had
increased to 88%. There were 33 rollover accidents that year involving teen
drivers and passengers. Of those 33, only 3 were unbuckled with only 1
reportable injury.
In
2014, the Kansas Sheriffs Association (KSA) adopted SAFE as one of its public
safety initiatives which continues today.
Sandy
Horton retired as Crawford County Sheriff and is currently the Executive
Director of the Kansas Sheriffs Association
It is a great way to bring the use of seatbelts to the attention of youth! It is saving lives and that is the goal of all of us. Thank you for taking the time to develop a solution to an issue of such importance!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your work and your continuing efforts to keep people safe. As long as we're not at 100%, we have to keep spreading the word that seat belts save lives.
ReplyDelete