Pioneer is one of 11 campuses in the South Bay participating in the "High School Seat Belt Challenge," a competition sponsored by Santa Clara County's Traffic Safe Communities Network. The goal of the challenge is to increase seat belt use among students, parents, teachers and staff.

Earlier this month, Pioneer's student body officers stood with California Highway Patrol officers along the campus' Mustang Lane and took an unannounced count of how many drivers were wearing their seat belts as they traversed the long driveway that leads to the school's parking lot. CHP officers will announce their presence when they return to campus for another count before the competition ends April 1. The school that boasts the biggest jump in seat belt use will win $300 in cash and a trophy.

The seat belt challenge is in its second year, and Pioneer participated in last year's pilot program. In that competition the school's seat belt compliance rate jumped from almost 88 percent to 92 percent.

"I don't think we got first prize, but I remember we got pizza," recalls Assistant Principal Rick Miritz.

Three mid-Peninsula high schools—Los Altos, Mountain View and Palo Alto—swept last year's challenge. The average increase in seat belt use across the eight participating campuses was 6.5 percent.

The seat belt challenge is part of a $4.5 million campaign by California's Office of Traffic Safety to encourage scofflaws to strap themselves in before they hit the road. According to the CHP, 72 percent of teenagers killed in traffic collisions in 2002 weren't wearing seat belts. TSCN administers the competition locally in partnership with the CHP and local police departments.

"We've been very successful in implementing it countywide," says TSCN health educator Christina Oshinsky. "We've become a model for other programs."

In addition to the competition, there's also an educational component to the seat belt challenge. TSCN provides participating schools with promotional items, such as key chains to hand out to students, and with statistics on teen seat belt use to include in daily announcements. Once they have these materials, Oshinsky says, "students make the decisions about what type of activities they want to do."

This year TSCN offered students another way to get the word out about traffic safety by sponsoring a poster contest. Middle and high school students could submit original artwork or photos that "communicated a clear positive message to other youth" about the dangers of everything from running a red light to driving drunk.

As with the seat belt challenge, Pioneer students participated in the pilot poster contest, this time with better results. Four seniors in Joe Berticevich's graphic arts classes came away winners for their computer-generated entries.

Three students earned first place: Jennifer Merriam won in the "Bike and Walk for Health" category, Steven Tepper for "Stop on Red/Stop Red Light Running" and Daniel Garcia for both "Wear Your Bicycle Helmet" and "Buckle Up/Wear Your Seat Belt." All three will receive $75 gift certificates from Best Buy for their efforts.

Ben Turk's "Stop on Red" poster earned him an honorably mention, for which he won a $35 gift certificate from Barnes & Noble Booksellers.

The winning posters were displayed last week at the Santa Clara County office building in downtown San Jose. County Supervisor Jim Beall is set to visit Pioneer on March 18 to present the four winners with their awards.