Reid's mothers belief about helping teenagers The Metter Advertiser

It's something I'm obligated to do...11/17/2009
by Jerri Goodman The results were disheartening: In a recent observational survey, only 10 percent of Metter High School student drivers were observed wearing seat belts as they arrived at school. The statistic, Leigh Webb said, is “pitiful.” Webb, a former school nurse at Metter Elementary School, is now pursuing her masters in nursing, emphasizing in community health. As part of her course of study, she has signed on with the “Georgia Is Buckle-Up Country” seat belt awareness campaign. “My focus is on teens and seat belts,” said Webb. And no one understands the importance of saving the lives of teen drivers more than Webb. Her son, Reid, was killed in a car crash in 2006 at the age of 17. “This is something I’m obligated to do as Reid’s mother,” she said of her involvement with the campaign. Her goal, she said, is to make parents aware of what safety precautions their children take when they get behind the wheel of a vehicle. Currently, Webb and Katie Burkett of the Georgia Office of Highway Safety Injury Prevention Program are conducting observational services each month at Metter High School and will be conducting the surveys at ECI as well. “The surveys are not easy,” Webb said, “and we want consistency in developing our numbers.” Webb said the importance of the surveys, which require actual observation of students as they arrive at school, is to open dialogue between parents and children about seat belt use. One area that needs special attention, Webb said, is teen males driving pick-ups. “Pick-ups have the lowest seat belt use, especially among males,” Webb reported, adding that Georgia is the only state that does not have a law making it mandatory for seat belt use in pick-ups for adults. All drivers and passengers 18 and younger are supposed to be buckled up, but in Georgia, an adult driving a pick-up does not have to use a seat belt. “I’m pushing for that law to be changed,” Webb said. “When you have a child watching an adult drive without a seat belt, you’ve increased the chances of that child driving without one.” Webb has talked with legislators at the Capitol to have the state law changed, but regardless of the outcome of that legislation, she said, her main emphasis is still seat belt use in every vehicle, every time. To learn more about the “Georgia Is Buckle Up-Country” seat belt campaign or ways to help your young driver be safer on the highway, visit the Georgia Office of Highway Safety web site, www.gahighwaysafety.org. The Metter Advertiser will post results for subsequent surveys at MHS as they become available.




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