TMA Bucks is once again challenging Bucks County high school students to always buckle up with the 13th annual Bucks County High School Seatbelt Safety Challenge and Video PSA Challenge.
Baseline surveys of student driver seatbelt use have been conducted at every public and private high school in Bucks County. Surveys were conducted without the knowledge of the student body or administration in order to ensure the most accurate data sampling. Each school’s result is being forwarded to the administration with an invitation to participate in the challenge.
The Bucks County High School Seatbelt Safety Challenge, which kicked off during National Teen Driver Safety Week, encourages participating high schools to raise their student driver seat belt usage over the course of the year as various student groups at each school work to actively promote seat belt use within the student body using posters, T-shirts, schoolwide announcements and other creative messages. In spring, an unannounced follow-up survey is conducted at each of the participating schools. The school with the highest overall percentage in seatbelt use and the school with the greatest percentage increase in seatbelt use are both awarded with perpetual trophy plaques and $500 cash grants for safety-related use by the school.
Back again this year as part of the initiative is the Teen Driver Safety Video PSA Challenge powered by Comcast. As part of the Seatbelt Challenge all Bucks County high schools have the opportunity to produce and submit a 30-second video PSA on teen driver safety. It can deal with any aspect including seatbelts, texting, distracted driving, speeding, etc.
The school selected as the winner will get a $500 cash grant and their video will play on Comcast networking. Videos must be uploaded to YouTube with the link emailed to dave@bctma.com by April 1 to be eligible to win.
Last year’s challenge saw 20 high schools compete. New Hope-Solebury student drivers had the highest overall seatbelt use (97 percent) while Pennridge High School achieved the greatest percentage increase in seatbelt use over all schools at seven percent (88% in fall to 95% in spring). Pennridge also was voted the winner of last year’s Teen Driver Safety Video PSA Challenge.
