Teen driving safety up as reward program spreads

From mock crash scenes on the high school football field to the classic "Blood on the Highway" films in driver ed class, teens these days get plenty of messages about the negative consequences of unsafe driving.

But a program launched in Crystal Lake almost 10 years ago and now spreading quickly across the suburbs may be having more positive results than all the fake blood and wrecked vehicles ever could by offering teen drivers incentives for acting responsibly behind the wheel.

Known as Operation Click, the program awards teen drivers with prizes ranging from a candy bar to a new car for buckling up and going the school year without any traffic violations.

Brought to three Crystal Lake high schools in 1998 by city police officer Sean McGrath, Operation Click now has a home in six other suburban schools: Barrington, Cary-Grove, Wauconda, McHenry East and West and Woodstock high schools.

The four schools in the Crystal Lake high school district compete for one car; the schools new to the program this year vie for another.

McGrath is hearing from educators and police in suburbs like Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Hoffman Estates and Winnetka interested in forming yet another chapter. The high schools that could add the program include Hersey, St. Viator, Conant, Hoffman Estates, Buffalo Grove, Palatine and New Trier.

And he's hearing from officials as far away as Champaign County and Delevan, Wis.

It doesn't end there. A second suburban car dealership is lining up to join Crystal Lake Pontiac-GMC by offering as many as two more new cars for Operation Click winners every year for the expanding program, and Wal-Mart has committed to donate thousands of dollars to the cause.

For McGrath, who admits he was a little skeptical about the program's chances at first, the success comes as a pleasant surprise.

"I'm happy to know that a lot of people have faith in the program because programs like this are necessary," he said.

Operation Click begins each school year with students signing a pledge to drive safely, obey traffic laws and always wear a seat belt while in a car.

Four times during the school year plainclothes police officers or school faculty members will survey student drivers as they arrive at or leave school, tallying how many are buckling up and how many are not.

Students who are buckled up can win prizes on the spot, from candy bars to coupons for free meals at local restaurants and even gift cards for gas.

If at the end of the year the surveys show that 90 percent to 95 percent of the student body is wearing seat belts, the name of a participating student from that school will be drawn.

If that student has had no traffic violations during the school year, he or she will get a chance to win a new car donated by a local dealership at a year-end banquet. If the results show better than 95 percent compliance, two students from that school get a chance at a car.

The program succeeds where others have failed, McGrath said, because it rewards young drivers for good behavior instead of just lecturing them about the consequences of bad behavior.

"A lot of what the kids see with the mock crashes and things like that is doom and gloom," McGrath said. "There's nothing negative about this. It's all positive."

And that positive approach so far has led to positive results at participating schools.

When started at Crystal Lake South, Crystal Lake Central and Prairie Ridge high schools in 1998, surveys showed only about 65 percent of student drivers were wearing seat belts. Last year, surveys showed 95 percent of students at those schools buckled up before hitting the road.

Nick Pyan, a Crystal Lake South High School senior, said that while his classmates are well aware of the consequences of unsafe, unbelted driving, it's the chance at prizes that make Operation Click popular among his classmates.

"The biggest thing is that they have an opportunity to win a brand new car," said Pyan, the program's Student of the Year last year. "If not for that, it wouldn't be as successful."

It doesn't hurt, he added, that students leading the program at Crystal Lake South randomly hand out prizes like coupons for free meals at local restaurants to classmates who are buckling up.

"It keeps it in their minds, that maybe today is the day they'll get a free pizza for wearing their seat belt," he said.

At Wauconda High School, one of the five schools that began Operation Click this year, the percentage of students buckling up already has risen from the 70s during the school's first survey to almost 90 in the most recent, Principal Dan Klett said.

It's not just the incentives, Klett said. The program succeeds because students get to call most of the shots. A student committee at Wauconda promotes the program and conducts some of the student checks.

"They're the ones telling me how they want the program to be run," he said. "They're the ones doing the work, so they take ownership of it."

McGrath said there is not, and may never be, absolute proof of the program's success in making teens drive more safely, but he's heard several anecdotes of Operation Click participants walking away from serious car wrecks because they had buckled up.

"The ultimate goal is we're trying to create a habit for life," McGrath said. "If we do that, then I think we're saving lives."

These are the first four schools to participate in the Operation Click program and their seatbelt compliance numbers.

School 1998 2000 2006 2007

Prairie Ridge 65% 82% 96.5% 97%

CL Central 65% 88% 96.3% 96%

CL South 65% 84% 95% 93%

Cary Grove -- -- 86% 93.5%

Source: Operation Click