Worth County Students Participate in Seat Belt Workshop

For the first time in St. Joseph, Northwest high school students learned how Team Spirit could help save lives. Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death and injury for youth 15 - 24 years of age. In an effort to prevent these deadly crashes, the Northwest Region's Coalition for Roadway Safety presented the 2013 Northwest Regional TEAM SPIRIT Workshop on March 6, at the St. Joseph Civic Arena in St. Joseph, MO. The free workshop was open to all high schools in the 20 counties in the Northwest Missouri area, and seven schools attended the event to learn how they could help save lives on our roads.
Only 67 percent of Missouri teens buckle up before heading out on the road and Northwest Missouri has some of the lowest seat belt usage rates among high school drivers across the state. "We know we continue to lose precious lives to needless crashes in our area because young drivers don't buckle up, they text and drive, drive impaired or do a variety of other unsafe behaviors," said Jackie Spainhower, the executive director of the Northwest Region's coalition. "This Team Spirit event is a great way for schools to proactively educate their students and hopefully save lives and prevent injuries - all at no cost to them."
This one-day training for students and advisors focused on the safety issues facing teens and driving. Dynamic and interactive workshops were presented on safety belt use, drinking and driving, speeding, cell phone use and texting while driving. Additional activities focused on team building skills and action plan development. 
Through this training, students were empowered to take a leadership role in making a difference in their schools. While at the training, each school developed an action plan to address what they determine to be the number one traffic crash concern at their school leading to death and injury. Participating schools received grants from the coalition to put their action plans to work.
The participating schools were Chillicothe R-II High School, East Buchanan C-I High School, Maryville R-II High School, North Daviess R-III High School, Southwest Livingston R-I High School, Trenton R-IX High School and Worth County R-III High School.
To learn more about TEAM SPIRIT or the Northwest Region's Coalition for Roadway Safety, call 888-ASK MODOT (888-275-6636) or visit http://www.savemolives.com/ or www.modot.org/safety/TeamSpirit.htm.