Seatbelt safety week is just around the corner, and this year, the Washington County CARTEENS 4H Group will visit Waterford High School from April 20th to the 23rd. Kathryn Hartline, the club advisor, shares more.

"Carteens is a 4H club of teen leaders who help to put on a seatbelt safety week at one of the local school districts in Washington County. So seatbelt safety week's goal is to raise awareness for seatbelt usage and to have the students do different activities, uh, throughout the week to help with that message."

She said that over the 4 to 5 years CARTEENS has been doing this, she has seen a positive effect.

"Each year when we start our seatbelt safety week, we take a visual survey of just the students, parents and staff that are buckled up, and then at the end of the week after all of the activities, we have seen an improvement in seatbelt usage, and that's raised anywhere from 10% to 15%."

While seatbelt safety week coincides with many local proms and encourages good choices, it is meant to be a reminder for everyone at all times.

"Seat belt safety week just isn't a one week long activity. We hope that it also raises awareness just for people to wear their seat belts year round. But you know, this is just, uh, a week throughout the year that we can bring awareness and hopefully get that message out there to, uh, teen drivers, passengers, parents, and the community."

In addition to CARTEENS, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Washington County Health Department, local food vendors, and the Ohio State University Extension Office all help to make this event possible.