Greeley is getting more and more populated and traffic is piling up. Every morning the traffic to get into schools is insane and driving is very dangerous. Some students don’t understand what driving is and how easily your life can be taken away from you. Stats and physics shows that crashes with a seat belt on can and will save your life.

One of the assemblies Greeley West had a few weeks ago was on seat belt safety and on the morning of the presentation, Drive Smart Weld County stood outside and counted the number of people wearing or not wearing seat belts. 772 people passed by in cars, but 287 people were not buckled up.

That is around 37% of people not buckled up. There will be another test at the end of the school year to see if the number of people wearing seat belts has improved.

Junior Nomar Rodriguez, who drives to school each day, thinks that he can improve as a safe driver in regards to his seat belt usage. “I wear mine sometimes, which is a mistake,” Rodriguez said.  “If I were to get into an accident, I’d be more safe with a seat belt on.”

“Greeley West has been extremely lucky to not have had any serious accidents, at least recorded, and if an accident does happen, I want students to be safe. Weld County has one of the highest fatality rates and with traffic growing, it is scary. I want kids to be safe and seat belt awareness to be noticed at Greeley West,” principal Jeff Cranson said.