Winners announced in statewide teen seat belt challenge

Louisa County High School and Montgomery County’s Auburn Middle School are the statewide 2019 winners of YOVASO’s “Save Your Tailgate, Buckle Up and Slow Down” campaign.

The annual challenge, which aims to encourage youth and teens to develop a lifelong, buckle-up habit, saw an impressive 6.6% increase in belt use among students at participating schools that completed pre- and post- seat belt checks. The campaign also focused on speed-prevention.

Other winners include:

• Fluvanna County High School, 2nd Place – High School Division
• Halifax County High School, 3rd Place – High School Division
• Central Academy Middle School in Botetourt County, 2nd Place –Middle School Division
• Walker-Grant Middle School in Fredericksburg, 3rd Place – Middle School Division

As the statewide winners, Louisa High School and Auburn Middle School will each receive $500 and a congratulatory prize banner. Fluvanna, Halifax, Central Academy and Walker-Grant will receive cash prizes and a banner.  All campaign prizes were funded by donations and a grant from State Farm.

“State Farm congratulates the participating schools for educating teens on the importance of wearing a seat belt,” said Kate Beadle, State Farm spokesperson. “We hope the students develop a lifelong habit of buckling up, both as a driver and a passenger.” The grant from State Farm also supported campaign materials.

Sixty-three schools, youth groups, and other traffic safety organizations participated in the annual campaign that ran from Sept. 23, 2019 until Oct. 25, 2019.  Winners were selected based on their campaign involvement which included developing a creative event to emphasize the importance of the campaign’s theme and message. The Creative Event was given the highest weight and was judged on content, student engagement, and creativity. Other judging criteria included educational and awareness activities promoting driver and passenger safety and the results of pre and post campaign seat belt checks to encourage buckling up among students. Among the schools that completed checks, seat belt use increased an average of 6.6 percent from pre-campaign to post-campaign.

“We are excited by the significant increase in seat belt use among students at participating schools during the Save Your Tailgate campaign,” said Mary King, YOVASO Program Manager. “The participating schools, youth groups, and student leaders did an outstanding job in developing new and creative ideas to encourage youth to buckle up and slow down.  We hope our schools and student traffic safety advocates will continue to improve seat belt use rates in their communities by reminding peers and loved ones to always buckle up.”

During the campaign, participating schools sponsored hundreds of activities and events aimed at increasing seat belt use and/or speed prevention. Some examples include buckle-up themed tailgate parties, safety demonstrations, poster and door decorating contests, producing buckle up awareness videos, participating in pep rallies promoting traffic safety, and social media campaigns. Students who participated in activities were rewarded with mini footballs imprinted with a buckle up message, buckle up reminder cards, speed-prevention bookmarks, and other materials imprinted with the buckle up and slow down message.

The campaign also included a video ad placed on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube to promote seat belt use and remind teen drivers about the dangers of speeding and driving distracted. The ad had over 1 million impressions during the campaign.

YOVASO is Virginia’s Peer-to-Peer Education and Prevention Program for Teen Driver and Passenger Safety and is a program of the Virginia State Police funded through grants from the Virginia DMV Highway Safety Office. Membership in YOVASO is free and open to all Virginia high schools, middle schools, and youth groups. YOVASO currently has 112 active member schools and youth groups.