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Seat belt usage rates up in North Carolina

The Governor’s Highway Safety Program reports 88.6 percent of state residents buckled up in their 2013 survey… up 1.1 percent from 2012. Counties with the highest seat belt usage were Caldwell and Catawba at 93.8 percent while Robeson County was the lowest at 82.2.  The biggest one year improvement was in Columbus County, up to 90.7 percent usage from 77.9 in 2012. Women buckled up more than men by about 5 points while drivers ages 16-24 were least likely to use their seat belt. This year marks the 20th anniversary of North Carolina’s Click It or Ticket program, the nation’s first seat belt safety campaign. 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.