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Seat Belt Usage at All-Time High in NC

INTRO -- Seat belt usage in the state is at an all-time high. George Olsen has more.

A press release from the Governor’s Office says 90.6 percent of drivers and passengers were buckled up according to an annual seat belt survey conducted in June. It’s the first time usage was above 90 percent. Governor’s Highway Safety Program Director Don Nail pointed out a public awareness campaign to get more passengers to use their seat belt as one reason for the usage record. The survey noted a big jump in passenger seatbelt usage, up 4.8 percent to 89.7 percent. Seat belt usage also rose for drivers ages 16-to-24… up to 89.3 percent from 85.5 percent a year earlier. Data for the annual survey was derived by trained spotters observing drivers and passengers at 120 locations in fifteen counties throughout the month of June. I’m George Olsen.

George Olsen is a 1977 Havelock High School graduate. He received his B.A. in Broadcast Journalism from the University of South Carolina in 1982 where he got his first taste of non-commercial radio working for their student station WUSC. After graduation he worked about five years in commercial radio before coming to work at Public Radio East where he has remained since outside of a nearly 3-year stint as jazz and operations coordinator at WUAL in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the early 1990s. On his return to eastern North Carolina he hosted classical music for Public Radio East before moving into the Morning Edition host position and now can be heard on All Things Considered. He also hosts and produces The Sound, five hours of Americana, Roots Rock and Contemporary Folk weekday evenings on PRE Public Radio East News & Ideas, and is a news and feature producer for Public Radio East.