Hickman High School students had fun this morning seeing how fast they could click their safety belts, but not wearing a seat belt is no laughing matter, students agreed.

Don Shrubshell photo

From left, Hannah Duncan, 17, Langston Groce, 16, and Michele Curry, 17, race to change places and buckle their seat belts in car seats today outside the commons of Hickman High School. The student-sponsored event was intended to promote seat belt use.

"We lost a friend," senior Marquita Johnson, 17, said. "Tyson didn’t have a seat belt on. It’s weird. One day you see someone, and the next day they’re gone."

Marquita wiped away tears as she remembered Tyson Tindall, a 17-year-old from Boonville who died in a car crash Oct. 15.

For the past month, Marquita and other members of the Bridges Club have been stressing to fellow Kewpies the importance of buckling up as part of a seat belt awareness campaign.

This morning, students in fourth- hour classes gathered outside the commons to participate in a "quick click" challenge. The idea was to see how long it took team members to get buckled up, but the ultimate goal was to show students how little time it takes to protect themselves.

"It’s a half-second difference between life and death," senior Karri Coston, 17, said. "You don’t have to be the person driving crazy, either. Someone can hit you."

Seat belt safety is typically part of Red Ribbon week in the spring, but this is the first time Hickman has had a monthlong awareness effort.

During the program, students have signed pledges to wear seat belts, played driving safety trivia and next week will hear a Missouri State Highway Patrol seat belt presentation.

Bridges members are also ticketing fellow students if they don’t buckle up on school grounds. During the Battle of the Belts, teens who click it are rewarded with an "Arrive Alive" message bracelet; those who don’t get a fake ticket.

About 80 percent of Hickman students wear their safety belts when they drive, guidance counselor Maria McMahon said, although fewer passengers opt to wear the belt.

Karri said that’s not an option in her car. She won’t drive unless everyone wears a seat belt. And Marquita said she lectures friends to wear seat belts.

That type of peer pressure could help youngsters get in a lifelong habit of buckling up, school Resource Officer Mark Brotemarkle said.

"If they get in the habit, they’ll do it without thinking," he said. "Students tell me they’re refusing to drive if the passengers didn’t put their safety belts on. We don’t plan on crashing our cars, but crashes happen."

Marquita said she found that out during a trip to St. Louis a few years ago. She was in the back seat of her brother’s car when another vehicle sideswiped it. Marquita said she wasn’t wearing a seat belt.

"I flew into my friend," she said. "I could’ve died. Your life isn’t promised to you when you leave the house."