Battle of the Belt
Battle of the Belt TN is a friendly seat belt competition for Tennessee high schools designed to reduce motor vehicle injuries and fatalities by increasing seat belt use. Registration is in December and the competition takes place during the spring semester. Schools win by conducting a student-led educational program and three unannounced seat belt checks with faculty advisor support. Schools receive awards for educational program excellence, seat belt use increase, and/or maintaining a high seat belt use rate.
The contest is sponsored by the Tennessee Department of Health and supported by the Tennessee Department of Education, The Tennessee Injury Community Implementation Group (ICIG), level one trauma centers, and many other partners.
How Does Battle of the Belt TN Work?
Register Your School (by the last day of November) by completing the BOTB Participation Agreement/School Education Plan. You must register online, but you can preview a copy of the application (PDF) here.
Conduct Seat Belt Check #1 (by the first Friday in December) Use a smartphone or tablet and the BOTB MOBILE Seat Belt Check Form to complete the on-campus seat belt check OR use the pencil and paper form. If you use the pencil and paper form, you must upload that data manually here within 24 hours of the check.
Conduct Battle of the Belt Education Plan (Jan 1 – May 31) with students, staff, and faculty. Document your efforts with pictures, articles, videos, etc. to create a digital scrapbook.
Conduct Seat Belt Check #2 (by the last Friday in February) Use a smartphone or tablet with the BOTB MOBILE Seat Belt Check Form to complete the on-campus seat belt check OR use the pencil and paper form. If you use the pencil and paper form you must upload that data manually here within 24 hours of the check.
Conduct Seat Belt Check #3 (by the last Friday in March) Use a smartphone or tablet with the BOTB MOBILE Seat Belt Check Form to complete the on-campus seat belt check OR use the pencil and paper form to complete first seat belt check. If you use the pencil and paper form you must upload that data manually here within 24 hours of the check.
Email completed Battle of the Belt Digital Scrapbook (by first Friday in April) documenting your work in MS PowerPoint, Word, or PDF format to Terrence.Love@tn.gov.
Battle of the Belt Student Teams are encouraged to conduct creative, engaging, semester-long programing to improve seat belt use rates. Social media (videos, images, twitter, etc.), email blasts, presentations, announcements, flyers, contests, etc. are also strongly encouraged.
If you have questions, please email Terrence Love at terrence.love@tn.gov or call 615-532-7778.
For more detailed guidance, download the Battle of the Belt Resource KIt.
For resources for your educational campaign, visit the following links:
Past Winners Include:
Bledsoe County High School
Hixson High School
Memphis East High School
Science Hill High School ( New )
Summertown High School
Sullivan East High School
Unaka High School
Unicoi High School