Driving home campaign to teens

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

The SADD club at Chilhowie High School is again conducting a campaign to promote buckling up among teen drivers. The campaign by Students Against Destructive Decisions (formerly Students Against Drunk Driving) is called “Save Your Tail-Gate, Buckle Up.”
“The students have placed a crashed truck in front of the school to bring awareness and show the importance of always wearing your seatbelt,” said Smyth County Sheriff’s Deputy Ernie Atwell, school resource officer and club sponsor. “They have also conducted seat belt checks, and in one week, have already seen a 5 percent increase in teens buckling up. They also had a pledge table, outside the cafeteria, asking students to pledge to wear their seat belt as well as making sure everyone who commuted with them were buckled up.”
Atwell said 99.3 percent of the students made the pledge.
SADD Club students also threw out “buckle up” footballs at the football game, placed posters throughout the high school, and made announcements to also bring awareness to this campaign, Atwell said.
The club took third place last school year with its Buckle Up, Drive Sober – It’s a Slam Dunk! campaign in competition among Virginia High Schools organized by Youth of Virginia Speak Out About Traffic Safety, or YOVASO, promotes safe driving among young people.
That campaign ran during basketball season and was also highly visible in the community as a wrecked compact car sat on display at the front of the school. Students signed a pledge card saying, “I pledge that: I will not drink and drive or ride with an impaired driver and that I will buckle up every time I am in a vehicle. I will encourage my friends to buckle up and drive responsibly.”
At the campaign’s end, 401 of 425 students signed the pledge, or almost 96 percent, making the campaign “absolutely” a success, Atwell said.
Atwell said 716 teenagers who were not buckled up died on Virginia roads between 2000 and 2008, and the club’s work goes on.
“The SADD club continues to promote safe teen driving to the students as well as to their community,” Atwell said.  “They don’t wish for you to become part of these statistics, so remember, every time you get into a vehicle “save your tail-gate, buckle up.”