Car safety tips click with teens

PROVO — Early one September morning last year, Utah Highway Patrol trooper Todd Johnson stood near an entrance to Provo High School's parking lot, scrutinizing passing students in their vehicles.

On this day, however, Johnson would issue no citations or warnings.

He was there to observe and — hopefully — to change some students' ways.

Johnson, with the help of volunteers from the PTA, monitored the seat-belt usage to determine how many kids were buckling up as they drove to school.

The trooper and his helpers estimated that approximately 72 percent of the students at Provo High wore a seat belt on the way to school.

That number was unacceptably low for Johnson, parents and school administrators.

As part of a UHP High School Adoption Project, which may be the first of its kind in Utah, Johnson led a yearlong campaign to encourage students to buckle up, obey the law and stay alive.

"They just need to be educated and get the motivation," Johnson said of teenage drivers. "Part of what I teach kids when I get them in drivers (education) is you need to make that seat belt a habit. Right now it's usually mom and dad's habit."

Johnson and Provo High's PTA, aided in large part by Debbie Johnson, the trooper's wife and the school's PTA's vice president, judged their efforts to be successful after they observed a 92 percent seat-belt usage rate during the last week of school.

The end result came about after a series of activities throughout the year, perhaps the most visible of which was Johnson's frequent appearances in the school's parking lot before or after school.

"I'd pick a different entrance each time; when the kids came in, if they were wearing their seat belt, they'd get the thumbs up," Johnson said. "If not, I'd point at them and run my hand across the torso, the way a seat belt goes across your body. I knew it would work as long as we could devote time to it."

Johnson would not issue any tickets or even warnings to the offending parties. Instead, he would chat with them for a moment and give a fact about seat-belt safety.

"This was strictly educational," he said. "It was just myself, a metal sign that said 'Buckle up and live,' and it was always right next to me. I didn't stop them and threaten a ticket or warning. I just kind of hit them with some hard fact to grab their attention."