NCHSAA announces new partnership with NC Governor’s Highway Safety Program

The NCHSAA is pleased to announce a new partnership with the North Carolina Governor’s Highway Safety Program this football season on a Click It or Ticket initiative. This initiative promotes seat belt use among students in high school, which is a critical time to emphasize the importance of every person in every seat buckling up every time.

Over the last five years, 125 unbelted students between the ages of 16 and 18 died in crashes on North Carolina’s highways. In addition to these fatalities, more than 4,000 unbelted crashes and 2,400 unbelted injuries were reported among this age group.

“NCHSAA shares our passion for safety, and together we want to save lives by promoting the message that seat belts save lives.” “We want to educate this age group about the importance of taking safety precautions while on the highway. We don’t want them to become another statistic,” said Mark Ezzell, GHSP director.

NCHSAA Commissioner Que Tucker said, “The health and safety of our young people is always a priority for the NCHSAA, and that goes for activities in the competitive arena as well as those outside our contests and events. When we were approached about the partnership in the ‘Click It or Ticket’ initiative, we immediately saw the potential for making positive impacts on our member schools and their communities. We are pleased and more than willing to do our part to promote vehicle safety to an important demographic of drivers – our high school students.”

Plans for the partnership include interactive elements such as a PSA contests that engages students in helping communicate the importance of every passenger, in every car, using seat belts every time.

About North Carolina High School Athletic Association
The NCHSAA is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit corporation that provides governance and leadership for interscholastic athletic programs that support and enrich the educational experience of students in all 414 member schools. The NCHSAA conducts championships in 23 sports across four classifications of play with over 90-team champions crowned each year. For more information on the NCHSAA or NCHSAA Championships, visit the Association’s websitewww.NCHSAA.org.

About the North Carolina Governor’s Highway Safety Program
NCGHSP is a division of the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), and is dedicated to promoting highway safety awareness to reduce the number of traffic crashes and fatalities in the state of North Carolina through the planning and execution of safety programs, including “Click It or Ticket.” North Carolina’s “Click It or Ticket” program began in 1993 to increase seat belt and child safety use rates through stepped-up enforcement of the state’s seat belt law.