Published: October 14, 2008 10:48 pm         

State program earns national honor for seatbelt campaign

Roland Jones, the state coordinator of West Virginia’s LifeSavers Program, was recently given national recognition from the Governors Highway Safety Association.

“I started this program five years ago,” the Beckley resident said. “The results have been a dramatic increase in statewide seatbelt use — from 49 percent in 2000, which was one of the lowest rates in the country, to 89 percent in 2007.”

The program was recognized at the GHSA’s annual highway safety awards last month in Scottsdale, Ariz. GHSA represents state highway safety agencies across the country.

“Before we just had the Click-It-Or-Ticket program, but it was mostly only used during blitz periods in May and November,” Jones said.

Jones added the Click-It-Or-Ticket program still exists.

“The West Virginia’s LifeSavers Program is a year-round program,” he said.

The program was recognized for its success in providing incentives to law enforcement agencies to improve seatbelt use.

“We wanted a program that was more appealing to officers and agencies across the state,” Jones said. “We wanted to encourage more officers to spend as much time as enforcing seat belt and child safety seat laws.”

For the modest cost of $40,000 a year in federal funds, the West Virginia LifeSavers program provides an opportunity to encourage over 1,000 officers from more than 135 different agencies to work toward a common goal of saving lives and reducing the number of serious injuries on West Virginia highways.

“It’s an incentive-based program, but not a competition,” Jones said. “The program has played a large factor in increasing statewide seatbelt use. We are very honored to be recognized for its results.”

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