THOMASVILLE- The Thomasville Police Department held a competition, dubbed the Seatbelt Safety Challenge for students at Thomasville High School last week, as students prepare for spring break.

Community Relations Officer Crystal Parker explained the challenge was an engagement activity they did years ago and decided to revisit after a conversation among the staff.

“We do a great job of creating and teaching safety engagements with the young kids, and less so with the older kids,” she said. “After reviewing our crime prevention efforts for the last few years we recognized a need to increase our engagement with teens-middle and high schoolers.”

Parker pointed out the growing population represents a segment of the community who are becoming drivers and entering the workforce, making the relationship between TPD and them paramount.

As a result, the TPD team asked permission from THS principal Bryson Daniels to offer the Seatbelt Safety Challenge.

Daniels was happy to allow his students to not only have fun on a Friday afternoon but learn from TPD.

Parker explained the goal of the challenge was to illustrate just how little time it takes to buckle a seatbelt.

“We want the kids to buckle up each and every time they get in the car,” she said. “We needed to find an innovative and fun way to spread this message without nagging them or showing them horrific crash scenes.”

The challenge has students or faculty create teams of four. They are then buckled in and when the timer starts, each of them must unbuckle, rotate seats in the car, and buckle back up. They must do this until each person has sat in every seat. After the final click, the time is recorded for the challenge.

The initiative was announced several weeks in advance, giving students time to create a team, and encouraging the school to drum up excitement in the announcements. Winners of the challenge would receive gift cards from various restaurants that supported the cause.

While the participation was lower than Parker hoped, she said administrators jumped in and several groups went more than once, hoping to improve their time.

“We appreciate those who did step up and participate,” she said. “The competitive spirit got them in the act. The teachers and principal all got very involved and competitive with the kids too, which was fun to see.”

Parker said she hopes to do this activity again with THS and generate more involvement by having students commit to the challenge early on.

“We’d also like to add other safety elements such as DUI, distracted driving, and speeding,” she said.

Parker concluded by sharing that she intends to build on the event and make it better for students in years to come.