More than a campaign: Buckle Up, Phone Down is how Missouri cares

By Christy Pearce, community planner, Northwest Missouri Regional Council of Governments

As someone who has driven Missouri’s back roads, highways, and gravel lanes, I can tell you: Missourians care.

We check in on our neighbors. We hold doors open. We wave from our trucks. Now, we’re being asked to do something just as kind: Protect each other on the road. We know that texting while driving makes a crash 23 times more likely. We know that seat belts reduce the risk of fatal injury by nearly 45 percent.

Most of all? We know that change starts with us.

I’m not just writing about Buckle Up Phone Down Day. I’m participating. I’m pledging. Because hope isn’t passive, it’s active. And the safest roads are the ones where every driver chooses to care.

Caring is the first step toward change

Since its creation, seat belt use in Missouri has increased by over five percent, and reports of distracted driving fatalities have begun to decline. That’s not coincidence, it’s progress.

More than 12,800 individuals and 560 businesses have taken the BUPD pledge. Hundreds of companies now have policies requiring seat belt use and restricting phone use in company vehicles. It’s not just about rules; it’s about setting a tone of safety and care from the top down.

On October 29, BUPD Day invited every Missouri community to get involved whether they’re rural, urban and everywhere in between. The beauty is this: all it takes is a small action. And it’s in these choices, these moments how lives are saved.

It’s in the mother who now insists her son buckle up before starting the car. It’s in the employer who models phone-free driving to her entire team. It’s in the teacher who explains to students that being cool behind the wheel means being careful.

Other things you can do:

• Display a sign outside your home, school, courthouse or business.

• Take a selfie with your team, your family, your football squad doing the BUPD pose.

• Spark conversations about what safe driving looks like in your world.

• Take the pledge!

The signs are even available for free through MoDOT’s Save Mo Lives campaign. You can request yours at: savemolives.com/mcrs/bupdsigns.

On October 29, the campaign did more than observing another safety campaign: They reclaimed lives. They honored those lost. And they chose hope, one seat belt click, and one phone put away at a time. And they committed to do it year-round.