7/29/2019 Making It Click: Day 3 Part 2

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Community of advocates

Ron Long has joined a com-munity of safety advocatesthat includes school person-nel, police, businesses andnonprofits, parents and stu-dents. Despite the setbacks ofrecent deaths, Bedford-area

advocates forge on.We always hear about the

lives that are lost. We can findsome strength in believing thatthere indeed are lives beingsaved through the advocacyefforts, said Tim Groover ofForest, a Lynchburg engineerwhose 15-year-old daughter,Brittany, was killed in a 2002wreck.

Retired police officer Rob-ert Strickler, who spent 25years on the force in FranklinCounty, agrees that recentdeaths do not mean advocatesarent getting the seat beltmessage across.

They should know, every-body should know, saidStrickler, who served as chair-

man of the Blue Ridge Trans-portation Safety Board.

Strickler said John Hanna dubbed Virginias fatherof transportation safety fordecades of work as deputytransportation safety com-missioner at the Departmentof Motor Vehicles coachedcolleagues to stay confidenteven when death countssurged.

If not for the agencysefforts, the statistics wouldbe higher, Hanna told them,according to Strickler.

Yovasos Mary King, whoseoffice is based in Roanoke,echoes that sentiment. Wehear stories across the stateabout young lives saved or bad

driving behaviors changedbecause of our work, she said.

More people buckling up

When the first Virginia seatbelt law took effect in 1988,two-thirds of people observedon state roads did not buckleup. Belt use rose to 63 per-cent by the next year and nowexceeds 80 percent, accordingto DMV.

The number of unbeltedVirginia drivers killed declined4 percent during the past fiveyears. However, we knowthere is still work to be done,said Mary Ann Rayment, a for-mer occupant protection spe-cialist for DMV.

At Liberty High School,

Yovaso-inspired efforts toget people buckled up werelegion last year. Windshieldfliers, signs in the parking lotand face paint carried the mes-sage. Scores of miniature foamfootballs bearing the beltingmessage were distributed.Teachers wrote traffic safetystatistics on chalkboards.

A record 52 schools fromacross Virginia competed toincrease seat belt use amongstudents during the 2012 SaveYour TAIL-Gate, Buckle UpCampaign, Yovaso reportedin its newsletter. Schools

organized close to 1,500 trafficsafety educational and aware-ness activities and successfullyincreased seat belt use by anaverage of 5 percent.

Grieving parents talk

Crystal Creasey, an instruc-tional technology resourceteacher in Bedford schoolswhose 17-year-old daughter,Ginni, was killed in a 2004wreck, is among the parentswho tell their stories to stu-dents. Her teenager had tuckedher shoulder belt behind herinstead of wearing it the properway, Creasey said. Two other

teens died in the same crash.Creasey said she talks to

10th-grade driver educationstudents at two of the threeBedford County high schools.

Theres no guarantee,though. Creasey said her audi-ence included Katie Thurston,16, who had a Vinton mailingaddress, one of four BedfordCounty students to perish intraffic wrecks during the fallsemester. The Staunton RiverHigh School teen was ridingto class unbelted in a vehicledriven by fellow student JacobBaird, 17, of Thaxton. Baird,who was belted, also died,police said.

A parent recounting the lossof a child is a somber, painful

matter. But Yovaso club mem-bers, who are encouraged tobe creative, hosted a numberof efforts that were more light-hearted.

A contest that matters

Hundreds attended a homefootball game in which LibertyHigh took on the BrookvilleBees of Lynchburg.

Yovaso monitors watchedto see which team and its fanbase would arrive in the schoolparking lot with the most peo-ple buckled in seat belts. Liber-ty High won with 144 buckled

in its first 200 cars, versus 128for Brookville. Brookville wonthe football game, but somewould say Liberty won the con-test that really matters.

That contest took place ona Friday night. About midnightthe following night, Allen Dick-enson set out on the ride thatended his life. Hannah Longwas dead a week later.

In Hannah Longs home,seat belt use had been stressedand modeled. Her dad, a

Staunton River High Schoolcoach and instructor, said heconsiders vehicular travelthe most dangerous activitywe do every day and tells hisstudents in health education tobuckle up.

People who ride unbelted,drive drunk or ride with anintoxicated driver and take otherunsafe actions should realizethat youre just throwing your-self to the wind, Long says.

He said it hurts to tell his

daughters story but it feels likea step in a needed direction.Tragedies change some mindsand lead to buckling.

Just not always.Teens, they just have a hard

time getting the message. Theyhear it but then that messagesgone, Long said.

He said that he and his wifehad planned to postpone let-ting Hannah get her driverslicense. Her parents expectedshe was going to need morepreparation to drive afterbecoming eligible for a license,he said.

Long said its time to tough-

en Virginias belt law to supple-ment education efforts. Butincreased safety will requiremore than increased belt use,he said. Long sees a need forroad work in his area, such asmore guardrails on Virginia 24,and for technology that pre-vents a vehicle from startingunless all occupants are belted.Long said a state trooper toldhim that his daughter wouldnot have survived even with abelt, given the damage in herOct. 14 crash.

But still I think a lot of livescan be saved by wearing seatbelts, Long said.

Technology can help

Technology is still being

developed to increase seatbelt use. Under federal rules,vehicles must emit a soundand turn on a dashboard light,each for at least four seconds,when the driver takes his seatand starts the vehicle withoutbeing belted. Thats the extentof the current mandate.

Many manufacturers volun-tarily go further: Three-fourthsof 2010 models signal whenthe front seat passenger isntbuckled, cars.com reported inAugust. The same technologyis due out for rear seats withinthree years, to comply with a

decision by Congress last sum-mer.

Long also sees a place forcameras to monitor high-riskdrivers. The No. 1 killer of teensis crashes.

If I had a teen driving,I would have some way ofrecording what they do, Longsaid.

Research at Va. Tech

Fleet operators such astrucking firms already usesuch technology. To refine itfor passenger vehicles, keyresearch is under way througha collaboration of area teens,their parents and the VirginiaTech Transportation Institute.

In 2007, Groover, the Lynch-burg engineer whose daughterdied in a crash, asked the Vir-ginia Tech institute to helpBedford County advocatesdevise ways to ward off teentraffic deaths. People withthose same concerns in Mont-gomery County sought helpabout the same time. The Bed-ford group (known as BEDCO

CARES for Bedford CountyCombined Accident ReductionEffort), Montgomery CountyPublic Schools and universitytransportation experts cameup with a plan to coach youngdrivers in real time.

Cameras and sensorsinstalled in vehicles produce alight or tone and begin record-ing when the driver acceleratesor brakes rapidly, swerves ortakes his eyes off the road formore than two seconds. Thealert goes off when the vehicleexceeds 70 mph or when thesensor detects alcohol. In con-cept, the teen is largely in con-trol. The more safely he or shedrives, the less likely the systemis to collect data for later review

by parents or driving coaches.To measure its effective-

ness, one group of 90 test sub-jects will drive without thefeedback light or tone while asecond group gets feedback.

The monitored driving willlikely begin in February orMarch and run for two years,said Sheila Charlie Klauer, aresearch scientist at the insti-tute.

Numbers tell the story

The past years highwaycarnage has challenged theresilience of area traffic safetyadvocates. Yovaso and the traf-fic safety advocacy communi-ty had been tracking a steadydrop in teen traffic deaths for

more than five years.The number of people

ages 16 to 20 killed in Virginiawrecks numbered 146 in 2006;133 in 2007; 126 in 2008; 92 in2009; 83 in 2010; and 83 againin 2011.

In December, a beleagueredbut determined-looking Kingpredicted: I think were goingto end this year with our f irstincrease since 2007.

She was right. Preliminaryfigures show that 84 people inthat age range were killed incrashes in 2012, an increase ofone from the previous year.

Donna DiversDonna 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 cen-terline 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. Div-ers 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 nicknamefrom 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 GarrettChristopher Cornbread Garrett, 42, was catching a ride

to work with his girlfriend, Donna Divers, when her NissanAltima crashed into a school bus in

the Hunting Hills section of Roanoke

County. Neither was belted, and theWirtz couple is now gone. She died at

the scene. He lived six days on life sup-

port, said Nancy Nicely of Covington,his mother, who is convinced he would

have had fewer injuries had he beenwearing 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

LEARNING: Use of seat belts has risen in Va.FROM 1

KYLE GREEN | The Roanoke Times

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 butit feels like a step in a needed direction. Long, a Staunton RiverHigh School coach and instructor, says he considers vehiculartravel the most dangerous activity we do every day and tells

his students in health education to buckle up.

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.

MAKING IT CLICKL I VES O N TH E L I N E

THE ROANOKE TIMES 14Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Myth: Seat belts arent required by Virginia law.

Fact: While police cannot stop a vehicle just becausethey see an unbelted adult, riding unbuckled in the frontseat is illegal. It is a secondary offense, meaning officerscan write $25 tickets after pulling a car over for anotherviolation.

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 injuriesduring a sudden stop or rollover. In addition, crashes arethe 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 crashesare 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 vehicleinvolved in a crash. In fatal crashes, three-fourths of peo-ple fully ejected from a vehicle are killed.

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

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.

Busting the myths