About 62 percent of Missouri teens wear a seat belt and only 50 percent of teens in pickup trucks buckle up, according to a Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety survey.
"We are happy that is an increase however it is only an increase of one percent from 2007 and part of what we would like to see is just more teens buckling up because that is significantly less than the statewide usage rate of 77 percent," said Spokesman Laura Holloway.
In the last three years, 415 youths between 15 and 19 died in Missouri traffic crashes, 80 percent of these teens were not wearing seat belts.
"It’s a sobering statistic because likely there are some of those lives that would have been saved had they been able to buckle up," Holloway said.
High schools across the state are in the middle of the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety’s Battle of the Belt challenge with surprise seat belt checks and student-planned educational campaigns. The challenge ends November 21 st .