In the spring of every year, “Officer Dan” Rittenhouse visits each third grade class at Broadway Elementary School and at Nevin Coppock Elementary School to present the Third Grade Safety Belt Program. The program focuses on the need for all occupants in every vehicle to properly wear their safety belts.
This is accomplished by an interactive discussion of safety belts, a video presentation by Bill Nye, the Science Guy, and a crash demonstration using an egg as the driver. In this demonstration, the driver (an egg) is secured by a safety belt and the car is rolled down a ramp until it crashes into a wall. The driver is then inspected and found to be unharmed. The driver is then placed into the car again, without the use of a safety belt and rolled down the ramp. After crashing into the wall, the driver (an egg) is inspected and found to have sustained significant injuries.
Finally, each student is deputized to be an official “Safety Belt Deputy” so they can then enforce the use of safety belts for all occupants in the vehicles that they ride in.
This program was developed and is maintained by the Ohio Department of Public Safety.