Hays High part of SAFE statewide seatbelt enforcement program

KHP

TOPEKA-The Kansas Highway Patrol and area law enforcement agencies are participating in the annual “High Visibility Seat Belt Enforcement” around Kansas high schools through Sun., March 5.

This initiative is coupled with the Seatbelts Are For Everyone (SAFE) in Kansas high schools.

SAFE is a locally sustained program, administered by the students of the high school they attend, and focuses on reducing injuries and deaths on Kansas roadways. Currently, 152 high schools from 66 counties participate in the SAFE program statewide.

Hays High School is one of the participants.

“We are serious about getting teens to buckle up,” said KHP Technical Trooper Tod Hileman, Hays. “SAFE is a wonderful high school positive reinforcement program that has greatly increased teenage seatbelt use in Kansas, all while decreasing the teen fatality rate.”

According to Kansas Department of Transportation statistics, in 2015 Kansas tragically lost 13 high school teens in motor vehicle crashes. Of those teens, 40 percent were not property restrained. The KDOT Bureau of Transportation Safety and Technology is spearheading this two-week awareness campaign in hopes of decreasing serious injuries and crash fatalities to teens by increasing seat belt usage. KDOT and law enforcement partners across the state have spent more than 20 years educating Kansas teens about the dangers of driving or riding without a seatbelt.

Now that the SAFE program has operated several years, teens are complying better than older persons, according to Hileman. “The enforcement period is a vital part of the program and after several years of doing the SAFE program, we now mostly catch adults who are not buckled up during this enforcement,” he said.

In 2015, the observed seat belt rate in Kansas for the ages of 15-17 was 85 percent. The seat belt usage rate for the same age group in 2008-2009 was 61 percent, demonstrating the SAFE program is making a difference for Kansas youth.

Hileman encourages any interested in starting SAFE in their local school to visit www.ktsro.org/safe for more information.