The annual Battle of the Belts competition among Madison County high schools will focus on the importance of buckling up, but this year’s competition is a bit different from years past.
“This year, we’ve changed it so that it’s not the schools competing against each other,” said Elaine Waters, associate professor for baccalaureate and graduate nursing at Eastern Kentucky University, and coordinator of the Battle of the Belts competition. “Instead, each school is competing against itself.”
This initiative was done to take the emphasis off competing with other schools in the hope that student drivers will focus more on their personal safety, rather than simply winning, she said.
The competition began in September, and will have its finale Dec. 1 when students at each participating school will be awarded for their performance.
Madison Central, Madison Southern, Berea Community and Model Laboratory high schools compete in the program to see which school has the most seat belt usage.
EKU baccalaureate nursing students will observe student drivers by standing at the entrance and/or exit of high school parking lots to see if the driver and any passengers are wearing seat belts.
After the initial observation process, EKU students provide each school with a list of activities geared to show the importance of seat belt usage.
A second observation is taken after a week of activities to see if the seat belt usage has increased, said senior EKU nursing student Rohan Alexander. He is part of a group of students focusing specifically on Madison Southern High School in Berea.
In the case of Madison Southern, only 42 percent of student drivers and passengers were wearing their seat belts during the initial observation, he said.
When the students were later given a verbal survey, about 85 percent said they regularly practiced wearing their seat belts, Alexander said.
Another reason for not having the schools compete against one another is to help schools create individual plans for teaching seat belt safety, he said.
“We hope that by growing the programs inside each school, we can promote a culture of safety, and that’s what it’s all about,” he said.
He helped with a presentation Tuesday at Madison Southern that was geared to “… help get on a personal level with the students,” he said.
“Hopefully, as this grows at each high school, the students will take over the activity,” Waters said. “We’ve had a very good response, and we hope we can continue this. The schools have been great in their support for this program.”
After all activities are complete, EKU students then return to their respective high schools and do another exit poll to see how much, if any, seat belt usage has increased.
“We want to see if seat belt usage actually goes up,” Alexander said. “Using a seat belt is not just about getting a (traffic) ticket. It’s a public health issue. It doesn’t affect just them as individuals, it affects the whole state.”
Alexander is referring to the increase in auto insurance coverage, which is partly based on the amount of accidents per capita in each Kentucky county.
Students from all participating schools will be rewarded Dec. 1 for their performance during the Battle of the Belts competition.
Ronica Shannon can be reached at rshannon@richmondregister.com or 624-6608.
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