Tuesday, February 26, 2013

MAKING IT CLICK

THE ROANOKE TIMES

14

LEARNING:
FROM 1

LIVES ON THE LINE

A record 52 schools from across Virginia competed to increase seat belt use among students during the 2012 Save Your TAIL-Gate, Buckle Up Campaign. Schools organized close to 1,500 traffic safety educational and awareness activities and successfully increased seat belt use by an average of 5 percent.
Yovaso (Youth Of Virginia Speak Out About Traffic Safety) | in its newsletter.

Use of seat belts has risen in Va.

Busting the myths
Stressed out, in a rush or otherwise indisposed, everybody forgets to buckle up sometimes. But a segment of society is deliberate about belting only part of the time or not at all. Experts who have listened to some of the reasons for not using a seat belt always challenge the reasoning. Weve given a few examples below.
Myth: Seat belts arent required by Virginia law. Fact: While police cannot stop a vehicle just because they see an unbelted adult, riding unbuckled in the front seat is illegal. It is a secondary offense, meaning officers can write $25 tickets after pulling a car over for another violation. Myth: A seat belt isnt going to make a difference in a crash. Fact: Studies have shown a seat belt reduces the risk of fatal injury by 45 percent for drivers of passenger cars. Myth: I am young and strong and dont need a belt. Fact: No amount of strength or physical conditioning can protect a person from the risk of blunt-force injuries during a sudden stop or rollover. In addition, crashes are the leading cause of death of people 15 to 20. Myth: Belts are less necessary on short trips near home. Fact: About half of all drivers involved in traffic crashes are less than 5 miles from home. Myth: Its less necessary to belt on low-traffic, rural highways since there arent many cars around. Fact: Based on total miles driven, more crashes happen in rural areas than urban areas. Myth: It can be safer to be ejected. Fact: A person is virtually always safer inside a vehicle involved in a crash. In fatal crashes, three-fourths of people fully ejected from a vehicle are killed. decision by Congress last summer. Long also sees a place for cameras to monitor high-risk drivers. The No. 1 killer of teens is crashes. If I had a teen driving, I would have some way of recording what they do, Long said.

Community of advocates
Ron Long has joined a community of safety advocates that includes school personnel, police, businesses and nonprofits, parents and students. Despite the setbacks of recent deaths, Bedford-area advocates forge on. We always hear about the lives that are lost. We can find some strength in believing that there indeed are lives being saved through the advocacy efforts, said Tim Groover of Forest, a Lynchburg engineer whose 15-year-old daughter, Brittany, was killed in a 2002 wreck. Retired police officer Robert Strickler, who spent 25 years on the force in Franklin County, agrees that recent deaths do not mean advocates arent getting the seat belt message across. They should know, everybody should know, said Strickler, who served as chairman of the Blue Ridge Transportation Safety Board. Strickler said John Hanna dubbed Virginias father of transportation safety for decades of work as deputy transportation safety commissioner at the Department of Motor Vehicles coached colleagues to stay confident even when death counts surged. If not for the agencys efforts, the statistics would be higher, Hanna told them, according to Strickler. Yovasos Mary King, whose office is based in Roanoke, echoes that sentiment. We hear stories across the state about young lives saved or bad driving behaviors changed because of our work, she said.

Research at Va. Tech

Fleet operators such as trucking firms already use such technology. To refine it for passenger vehicles, key research is under way through a collaboration of area teens, their parents and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. In 2007, Groover, the Lynchburg engineer whose daughter died in a crash, asked the Virginia Tech institute to help Bedford County advocates devise ways to ward off teen traffic deaths. People with those same concerns in Montgomery County sought help about the same time. The Bedford group (known as BEDCO CARES for Bedford County Combined Accident Reduction Effort), Montgomery County Public Schools and university transportation experts came up with a plan to coach young drivers in real time. Cameras and sensors installed in vehicles produce a light or tone and begin recording when the driver accelerates or brakes rapidly, swerves or takes his eyes off the road for more than two seconds. The alert goes off when the vehicle exceeds 70 mph or when the sensor detects alcohol. In concept, the teen is largely in control. The more safely he or she drives, the less likely the system is to collect data for later review by parents or driving coaches. To measure its effectiveness, one group of 90 test subjects will drive without the feedback light or tone while a second group gets feedback. The monitored driving will likely begin in February or March and run for two years, said Sheila Charlie Klauer, a research scientist at the institute.

Sources: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Old Dominion University, Youth of Virginia Speak Out organization.

organized close to 1,500 traffic safety educational and awareness activities and successfully increased seat belt use by an average of 5 percent.

Grieving parents talk

Crystal Creasey, an instructional technology resource teacher in Bedford schools whose 17-year-old daughter, Ginni, was killed in a 2004 wreck, is among the parents who tell their stories to students. Her teenager had tucked her shoulder belt behind her instead of wearing it the proper way, Creasey said. Two other teens died in the same crash. Creasey said she talks to 10th-grade driver education students at two of the three Bedford County high schools. Theres no guarantee, though. Creasey said her audience included Katie Thurston, 16, who had a Vinton mailing address, one of four Bedford County students to perish in traffic wrecks during the fall semester. The Staunton River High School teen was riding to class unbelted in a vehicle driven by fellow student Jacob Baird, 17, of Thaxton. Baird, who was belted, also died, police said. A parent recounting the loss of a child is a somber, painful matter. But Yovaso club members, who are encouraged to be creative, hosted a number of efforts that were more lighthearted.

More people buckling up

When the first Virginia seat belt law took effect in 1988, two-thirds of people observed on state roads did not buckle up. Belt use rose to 63 percent by the next year and now exceeds 80 percent, according to DMV. The number of unbelted Virginia drivers killed declined 4 percent during the past five years. However, we know there is still work to be done, said Mary Ann Rayment, a former occupant protection specialist for DMV. At Liberty High School, Yovaso-inspired efforts to get people buckled up were legion last year. Windshield fliers, signs in the parking lot and face paint carried the message. Scores of miniature foam footballs bearing the belting message were distributed. Teachers wrote traffic safety statistics on chalkboards. A record 52 schools from across Virginia competed to increase seat belt use among students during the 2012 Save Your TAIL-Gate, Buckle Up Campaign, Yovaso reported in its newsletter. Schools

Ron Long says it hurts to talk about the death of his daughter theres a photo in her bedroom of Hannah at about age 8 but it feels like a step in a needed direction. Long, a Staunton River High School coach and instructor, says he considers vehicular travel the most dangerous activity we do every day and tells his students in health education to buckle up.

KYLE GREEN | The Roanoke Times

daughters story but it feels like a step in a needed direction. Tragedies change some minds and lead to buckling. Just not always. Teens, they just have a hard time getting the message. They hear it but then that messages gone, Long said. He said that he and his wife had planned to postpone letting Hannah get her drivers license. Her parents expected she was going to need more preparation to drive after becoming eligible for a license, he said. Long said its time to toughen Virginias belt law to supplement education efforts. But increased safety will require more than increased belt use, he said. Long sees a need for road work in his area, such as more guardrails on Virginia 24, and for technology that prevents a vehicle from starting unless all occupants are belted. Long said a state trooper told him that his daughter would not have survived even with a belt, given the damage in her Oct. 14 crash. But still I think a lot of lives can be saved by wearing seat belts, Long said.

Numbers tell the story

The past years highway carnage has challenged the resilience of area traffic safety advocates. Yovaso and the traffic safety advocacy community had been tracking a steady drop in teen traffic deaths for more than five years. The number of people ages 16 to 20 killed in Virginia wrecks numbered 146 in 2006; 133 in 2007; 126 in 2008; 92 in 2009; 83 in 2010; and 83 again in 2011. In December, a beleaguered but determined-looking King predicted: I think were going to end this year with our first increase since 2007. She was right. Preliminary figures show that 84 people in that age range were killed in crashes in 2012, an increase of one from the previous year.

Technology can help

Technology is still being developed to increase seat belt use. Under federal rules, vehicles must emit a sound and turn on a dashboard light, each for at least four seconds, when the driver takes his seat and starts the vehicle without being belted. Thats the extent of the current mandate. Many manufacturers voluntarily go further: Three-fourths of 2010 models signal when the front seat passenger isnt buckled, cars.com reported in August. The same technology is due out for rear seats within three years, to comply with a

A contest that matters

Hundreds attended a home football game in which Liberty High took on the Brookville Bees of Lynchburg. Yovaso monitors watched to see which team and its fan base would arrive in the school parking lot with the most people buckled in seat belts. Liberty High won with 144 buckled

in its first 200 cars, versus 128 for Brookville. Brookville won the football game, but some would say Liberty won the contest that really matters. That contest took place on a Friday night. About midnight the following night, Allen Dickenson set out on the ride that ended his life. Hannah Long was dead a week later. In Hannah Longs home, seat belt use had been stressed and modeled. Her dad, a

Staunton River High School coach and instructor, said he considers vehicular travel the most dangerous activity we do every day and tells his students in health education to buckle up. People who ride unbelted, drive drunk or ride with an intoxicated driver and take other unsafe actions should realize that youre just throwing yourself to the wind, Long says. He said it hurts to tell his

Donna Divers
Donna Divers, 39, who lived in the Wirtz area of Franklin County, was driving her boyfriend to his job in Roanoke on Nov. 13 when she lost control of her Nissan Altima, crossed the centerline and hit the front of a school bus in the Hunting Hills area of Roanoke County. She died instantly. The passenger, Christopher Cornbread Garrett, 42, died in a hospital a few days later. Neither was belted. No one on the bus was seriously hurt. Divers mother, Mildred Divers, 73, of Boones Mill, said her daughter, one of three children, was disabled but previously worked as a vehicle detailer at a dealership. Mildred Divers is still piecing together what happened and thinks her daughter might have had a heart attack. Divers said she first learned of the crash when she saw a TV report on the wreck. It was several hours before police notified her the victim was her daughter. Her boyfriend got his nickname from being a great cook, Divers said. When Mildred Divers went to clean out their home, she found a partly eaten pan of cornbread. Divers said she is devastated. I sit down with my son and cry, she said. He does, too. Donna Divers left a 19-year-old daughter.
Jeff Sturgeon

Christopher Garrett
Christopher Cornbread Garrett, 42, was catching a ride to work with his girlfriend, Donna Divers, when her Nissan Altima crashed into a school bus in the Hunting Hills section of Roanoke County. Neither was belted, and the Wirtz couple is now gone. She died at the scene. He lived six days on life support, said Nancy Nicely of Covington, his mother, who is convinced he would have had fewer injuries had he been wearing a seat belt. I am sure it would have made a difference because his injury was mostly the brain, she said. Its a sad thing and they both were young. He leaves a daughter, 8.
Jeff Sturgeon