'Operation Click' getting results among teens

Later this month, faculty at eight Northwest suburban high schools will go about the business of reducing teen fatalities in motor vehicle accidents. Their method? Counting seat belt usage.

Seat belt surveys take place covertly every quarter at high schools in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. In the Northwest suburbs, schools include Barrington, Conant, Elk Grove, Fremd, Hoffman Estates, Lake Zurich, Palatine and Schaumburg high schools.

Teachers count them in the morning as students are arriving, during lunch break and after school dismissal. They count the number of cars driven by teens where the driver and passengers are all wearing seat belts.

Halfway into this academic year, their statistics are impressive: Nearly every Northwest suburban school reporting has 93 percent seat belt usage, or higher, by students.

The random surveys are part of Operation Click, a safe driving program for teens, started 16 years ago by Sean McGrath, a Crystal Lake police officer. He began with three high schools and now has 47 participating.

He'd like to have more, he says, and lately has been fielding inquiries from school districts in California, Florida, Indiana and South Carolina, among others.

McGrath says the program works because of the positive reinforcement, or incentives - namely the chance to win a car.

Every April, the organization gives away five cars to high school students.

To qualify, students must have clean driving records for the school year. They also sign contracts at the beginning of the school year pledging to wear their seat belts, not drink and drive, and not text or talk on their phones while driving.

After their quarterly audits are submitted to Operation Click, each school holds drawings among the students who signed contracts, to determine who will get to go to the April banquet and maybe win a car.

While McGrath started the program to reinforce seat belt usage, increasingly he is trying to convince students about the deadly effects of texting while driving.

He points to the latest fatality, which occurred last week, when 18-year old Emma Pincus Hartman of Glenview was killed in an auto crash on the Indiana Toll Road, allegedly while texting.

"In our program, students cannot be caught texting while driving in the car, ever," McGrath says. "One offense reported by the school resource officer, or an alcohol or drug offense, and their contract is void."

He adds that while texting is a big problem, it is not age specific. As a police officer, he sees teens - and their parents - texting while driving.

At this point, taking seat belt surveys, McGrath adds, is one way to measure teens' safe driving habits, and ultimately reduce accidents.

"We know the program is working because we're not seeing any fatalities in the high schools we're working with," McGrath said. "But we're also talking to students who have gone on to college, and they tell us they're still talking about the program.

"That's the key," McGrath added, "that we start creating safe driving habits that last for life."