National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS), with The National Road Safety Foundation and the Gillian Sabet Memorial Foundation, invite teens in high schools nationwide to buckle up in the 5th annual Seat Belts Save Challenge. The Seat Belts Save Challenge, open now, encourages increased seat belt usage among young people who are at heightened risk from death or injury in traffic crashes because of their low belt usage rate. In 2016, more than half of teen drivers killed in crashes and more than 60% of teen passengers killed in crashes were not wearing seat belts.
The Seat Belts Save Challenge offers a $1,500 prize in each of three categories: best overall campaign, greatest improvement in seat belt usage, and highest seat belt use rate. The challenge is documented by an unannounced seat belt check before a school’s campaign, followed by another after students have executed a four-week education campaign in their schools.
The deadline for schools to register is Nov. 1, and seat belt checks and local education campaigns must be completed by Dec. 1. Final reports must be submitted by Dec. 15 and winners will be announced in April, 2019. Information and rules are available at https://noys.org/about-us/our-programs/seat-belts-save/
“Getting young people to understand the life-saving importance of buckling up is an ongoing challenge,” said April Rai, CEO of NOYS. “The Seat Belts Save Challenge encourages high school students to share the importance of seat belt use with their peers and in their community.”
“We look forward to seeing how young people harness their creativity to help spread the important seat belt message to their peers,” said Michelle Anderson of The National Road Safety Foundation.
Students at Caldwell High School in Caldwell, Tex., won $1,500 for a comprehensive public awareness campaign last year that brought the student body’s seat belt usage to 91 percent. Batavia High School in Batavia, Ohio, won for the highest seat belt rate, achieving an almost-perfect usage rate of 99 percent. Students at Wallace Junior/Senior High School in Wallace, Idaho, won for the greatest seat belt use increase, up 60 percent.
