Bucks for Buckles program comes to EHS

Police and volunteers rewarded drivers and passengers for being buckled up Thursday morning at El Dorado High School during the annual Bucks for Buckles event.

School Resource Officer Kurt Spivey, along with State Farm Insurance Agents Neil Buckman, Bonnie Buckman and Frank Freeman; Jimmy Fulcher, a para at the high school; and Ronda Lusk, RN and Safe Kids coordinator, with Via Christi Health, were stopping cars to see if everyone was buckled up and giving $1 to those drivers who had everyone buckled up.

“It’s been really good,” Spivey said of how the morning was going. “Compliance this year has been good.”

Spivey only had one driver who was not buckled up and no one else saw any.

He said this might be due to the fact officers were out at the high school giving tickets last week for not wearing seat belts.

“Kids are warned that seat belts are something we expect,” Spivey said.

The Buckle Up program stresses the importance of buckling up. The message is brought to them right before the Labor Day weekend, when thousands of vehicles will be traveling the Kansas roads.

Safe Kids Kansas, State Farm and the Kansas Department of Transportation want to encourage families to buckle up and drive safely, and sponsoring this program is one way to do that.

“No one can predict when they will be involved in a motor vehicle crash, yet almost all of us will be involved in an automobile crash in our lifetime,” said Cherie Sage, state director for Safe Kids Kansas. “Last year, 388 people lost their lives on Kansas roadways and approximately 70 percent of them were unbuckled. The single most effective means of protecting the lives of you and your passengers is wearing seat belts and using appropriate child restrains every time you ride in the vehicle – even short distances.”

According to statistics provided to drivers during the event, 80 percent of all crashes occur at speeds less than 40 miles per hour and 75 percent of all crashes occur within 25 miles of home. The force of impact from a 30 miles per hour crash is like falling head first from a three-story building.

In addition, good drivers can be hit by bad drivers.

According to the 2009 KDOT Safety Belt Survey, only 77 percent of those surveyed ages 14 and older, were wearing their seat belt. This compares to the national average of 84 percent. In 2009, Kansas ranked 43 in the nation in seat belt usage.

“It is important that Kansans get the message that seat belts save lives,” Sage said. “An average of 93 people die each day in motor vehicle crashes nationally; that’s an average of one death every 16 minutes. This is unacceptable.”

Safety is also a focus of State Farm, which is a big sponsor of the program.

“We just want to reinforce with kids ‘for your safety it’s important to wear your seat belt,’” Bonnie Buckman said. “It can really save lives.”

Freeman agreed it was important and pointed out they have several programs that help young drivers be safe, including such programs as the Steer Clear Program.

He said they are out in the community all of the time talking to people about car seats, using cell phones while driving and texting.

In a one-year period, the cost of medical care and productivity losses associated with injuries from motor vehicle crashes exceeded $99 billion, with the cost of direct medical care accounting for $17 billion, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The total annual cost amounts to nearly $500 for each licensed driver in the United States, said the study in the journal “Traffic Injury Prevention.”

Bucks for Buckles was held in 46 cities across Kansas.