Seat belt safety lesson strikes home for Prospect High students
When Mount Prospect police officers who were at Prospect High School to preach seat belt safety responded to reports of a head-on collision minutes after the school day ended, they were gratified by what they found.
All four students in one of the vehicles, including the ones in the back seat, were wearing their seat belts and all were uninjured.
Police, the high school and Culver's Restaurant of Mount Prospect have teamed up on several occasions over the last three years to promote the use of seat belts, with the restaurant offering coupons for a free scoop of frozen custard to students observed wearing their seat belts as they leave school for the day.
In general, teenage seat belt use is not the greatest, especially for back seat passengers, said crime prevention officer Greg Sill. In 2008, there were 93 teen fatalities in traffic crashes in Illinois, with lack of safety belt use a factor in many of them, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.
"Had this program not been in place to reinforce the importance of wearing seat belts for these young adults, the outcome of the traffic crash might have been much worse," Traffic Unit Sergeant Mike Eterno said.
Police made their latest safety visit to Prospect High School Oct. 6. The school day ended at 2:50 p.m. At 3:07 p.m., the officers left the high school to respond to a 911 call reporting a traffic crash on Kensington Road at Prospect Manor Avenue, only a few blocks from the high school.
Three vehicles were involved in the crash, which occurred when an 83-year-old man, who was given a ticket, failed to yield the right of way after stopping at an intersection, police said. No one was injured in the accident.
The four teenagers in one vehicle - senior Anna Wegener, 17; junior Claire Reibel, 16; senior Sam Kelly, 17; and senior Annie Bolger, 18 - all still had their coupons for free custard for wearing their seat belts as they left school.
Eterno plans to submit their names and their story to the Illinois Department of Transportation for consideration to receive the "Saved by the Safety Belt" award. That statewide program aims to increase awareness of the lifesaving value of safety belts through public recognition of individuals who survived traffic crashes because they were properly buckled up.