Program promotes seatbelt use at MU

By Juana Summers

Published Sept. 21, 2007

MU is getting a lesson about buckling up.

During the month of September, the Partners in Prevention program will lead the "Drive Safe, Drive Smart" campaign on the MU campus, as well as on the campuses of Missouri's public colleges and universities.

"Drive Safe, Drive Smart," a program facilitated by the MU Wellness Resource Center, gives students information about safe-driving behaviors, including reducing distractions while driving and seatbelt use.

As a part of the educational program, on Tuesday, officers from the Missouri State Highway Patrol brought the seat belt convincer, a machine that simulates a collision at 5 mph, to the MU campus.

"Even at 5 miles per hour, it gives your body a jolt and makes you realize that you can get thrown around if you don't have a seatbelt on," Wellness Resource Center Senior Coordinator Joan Masters said.

Partners in Prevention was founded seven years ago out of partnerships between the 12 public colleges and universities in Missouri. According to the organization's Web site, Partners in Prevention is the "higher education substance abuse consortium" for the state of Missouri.

The Missouri Department of Mental Health Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Missouri Department of Transportation's Highway Safety Division and the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation's Port Authority Problem Gambling Fund sponsor the program.

The Partners in Prevention member universities compete against each other in a Battle of the Belt. The two-year-old Battle of the Belt competition pits the universities against each other to track which campus has the highest habitual seat belt use in the state.

Masters said Missouri Western State University won the competition last year; it is a goal of the program for MU to win this year.

As a part of the "Drive Safe, Drive Smart" program, representatives from the Missouri Safety Center completed a survey at the Hearnes Center parking lot to see how many individuals wore their seatbelts.

Masters said an additional survey will be completed in the same location following the program's educational drive to find if seatbelt habits change.

"Most students do buckle up," she said. "It's just the students who don't who can cause harm to themselves."

According to the statewide 2007 Missouri College Student Health Behavioral Survey, 91.4 percent of MU students wore their seatbelts "always and most times," as compared to the statewide rate of wearing seatbelts "almost and most times," which was 82.3 percent.

This is the third year for the "Drive Safe, Drive Smart" program on the MU campus, but it is the first year that an individual on staff at the Wellness Resource Center has been solely responsible for this program, Masters said.

The coordinator for "Drive Safe, Drive Smart" is Jessica Schlosser, who is also in charge of the CHEERS to the Designated Driver program.

The MU Police Department is not part of that campaign, MU Police Department Capt. Brian Weimer said, but its members do enforce the use of seatbelts both by employees and individuals driving on the MU campus.