During the 2024-2025 school year, Teens in the Driver Seat (TDS) launched the 12th annual Zero Hero activity to increase seat belt use among teen drivers and passengers at TDS schools. The activity consists of a pre-observation, three weeks of messaging, and a post-observation for the schools that completed and returned all observation data. The activity was offered to all program schools. Forty-five schools completed all requirements.
High school student teams were asked to observe teen drivers and passengers and log if they did or did not have their seat belts fastened. Junior High student teams were asked to observe teen passengers and log seat belt use.
Questions regarding data may be directed to Christine Yager at c-yager@tti.tamu.edu.
The above dot plot shows the percentage of all 45 schools who achieved 80% or higher seat belt usage for drivers and passengers between the pre- and post-observations. You can see that between the pre- and post-observations, there were significantly more schools who reached this seat belt usage benchmark after doing TDS seat belt outreach on their campus. Approximately two-thirds of schools achieved an increase between pre- and post-observations.
All 2024 – 2025 Schools
(n=45 schools)
| Pre-Counts | Post-Counts | % Change | |
| Teen Driver Sampling | 5,401 | 5,233 | |
| Total % of Teen Drivers Wearing a Seat Belt | 78.22% | 82.81% | +5.87% |
| Teen Passenger Sampling | 3,363 | 3,398 | |
| Total % of Teen Passengers Wearing a Seat Belt | 70.99% | 73.58% | +3.65% |
| First Year Schools (i.e., the first year that a school completed this activity) (n=21 schools) |
|||
| Teen Driver Sampling | 2,491 | 2,467 | |
| Total % of Teen Drivers Wearing a Seat Belt | 83.72% | 83.30% | -0.50% |
| Teen Passenger Sampling | 1,619 | 1,816 | |
| Total % of Teen Passengers Wearing a Seat Belt | 71.02% | 72.90% | +2.65% |
| Multi-Year Schools (the latest year that a school completed this activity) (n=24 schools) |
|||
| Teen Driver Sampling |
2,910 | 2,766 | |
| Total % of Teen Drivers Wearing a Seat Belt | 73.51% | 82.38% | +12.05% |
| Teen Passenger Sampling | 1,744 | 1,582 | |
| Total % of Teen Passengers Wearing a Seat Belt | 70.96% | 74.36% | +4.79% |
The following sections show state-specific Zero Hero Seat Belt Results
Texas 2024 – 2025 Schools
(n=9 schools)
| Pre-Counts | Post-Counts | % Change | |
| Teen Driver Sampling | 1,012 | 867 | |
| Total % of Teen Drivers Wearing a Seat Belt | 80.99% | 79.10% | -2.33% |
| Teen Passenger Sampling | 901 | 954 | |
| Total % of Teen Passengers Wearing a Seat Belt | 66.89% | 62.63% | -6.38% |
| First Year Schools (i.e., the first year that a school completed this activity) (n=5 schools) |
|||
| Teen Driver Sampling | 740 | 593 | |
| Total % of Teen Drivers Wearing a Seat Belt | 85.61% | 78.75% | -8.01% |
| Teen Passenger Sampling | 603 | 648 | |
| Total % of Teen Passengers Wearing a Seat Belt | 61.76% | 55.87% | -9.54% |
| Multi-Year Schools (the latest year that a school completed this activity) (n=4 schools) |
|||
| Teen Driver Sampling |
272 | 274 | |
| Total % of Teen Drivers Wearing a Seat Belt | 68.41% | 79.85% | +16.73% |
| Teen Passenger Sampling | 298 | 306 | |
| Total % of Teen Passengers Wearing a Seat Belt | 77.28% | 76.95% | -0.43% |
Georgia 2024 – 2025 Schools
(n=10 schools)
| Pre-Counts | Post-Counts | % Change | |
| Teen Driver Sampling | 1,212 | 1,412 | |
| Total % of Teen Drivers Wearing a Seat Belt | 65.40% | 75.55% | +15.53% |
| Teen Passenger Sampling | 563 | 721 | |
| Total % of Teen Passengers Wearing a Seat Belt | 60.34% | 68.62% | +13.73% |
| First Year Schools (i.e., the first year that a school completed this activity) (n=5 schools) |
|||
| Teen Driver Sampling | 621 | 816 | |
| Total % of Teen Drivers Wearing a Seat Belt | 76.78% | 79.15% | +3.08% |
| Teen Passenger Sampling | 305 | 443 | |
| Total % of Teen Passengers Wearing a Seat Belt | 67.98%% | 76.44% | +12.45% |
| Multi-Year Schools (the latest year that a school completed this activity) (n=5 schools) |
|||
| Teen Driver Sampling |
591 | 596 | |
| Total % of Teen Drivers Wearing a Seat Belt | 53.43% | 70.63% | +32.18% |
| Teen Passenger Sampling | 258 | 278 | |
| Total % of Teen Passengers Wearing a Seat Belt | 51.31% | 56.16% | +9.46% |
Nebraska 2024 – 2025 Schools
(n=1 school)
| Pre-Counts | Post-Counts | % Change | |
| Teen Driver Sampling | 111 | 103 | |
| Total % of Teen Drivers Wearing a Seat Belt | 97.00% | 96.00% | -1.03% |
| Teen Passenger Sampling | 61 | 79 | |
| Total % of Teen Passengers Wearing a Seat Belt | 93.00% | 92.00% | -1.08% |
| First Year Schools (i.e., the first year that a school completed this activity) (n=0 schools) |
|||
| Teen Driver Sampling | |||
| Total % of Teen Drivers Wearing a Seat Belt | |||
| Teen Passenger Sampling | |||
| Total % of Teen Passengers Wearing a Seat Belt | |||
| Multi-Year Schools (the latest year that a school completed this activity) | |||
| Teen Driver Sampling |
111 | 103 | |
| Total % of Teen Drivers Wearing a Seat Belt | 97.00% | 96.00% | -1.03% |
| Teen Passenger Sampling | 61 | 79 | |
| Total % of Teen Passengers Wearing a Seat Belt | 93.00% | 92.00% | -1.08% |
Colorado 2024 – 2025 Schools
(n=11 schools)
| Pre-Counts | Post-Counts | % Change | |
| Teen Driver Sampling | 986 | 872 | |
| Total % of Teen Drivers Wearing a Seat Belt | 84.78% | 88.09% | +3.91% |
| Teen Passenger Sampling | 572 | 620 | |
| Total % of Teen Passengers Wearing a Seat Belt | 82.56% | 87.08% | +5.48% |
| First Year Schools (i.e., the first year that a school completed this activity) (n=6 schools) |
|||
| Teen Driver Sampling | 707 | 568 | |
| Total % of Teen Drivers Wearing a Seat Belt | 87.61% | 89.76% | +2.45% |
| Teen Passenger Sampling | 417 | 488 | |
| Total % of Teen Passengers Wearing a Seat Belt | 85.84% | 88.31% | +2.88% |
| Multi-Year Schools (the latest year that a school completed this activity) (n=5 schools) |
|||
| Teen Driver Sampling |
279 | 304 | |
| Total % of Teen Drivers Wearing a Seat Belt | 77.61% | 84.99% | +9.51% |
| Teen Passenger Sampling | 155 | 132 | |
| Total % of Teen Passengers Wearing a Seat Belt | 73.74% | 82.56% | +11.97% |
Washington 2024 – 2025 Schools
(n=5 schools)
| Pre-Counts | Post-Counts | % Change | |
| Teen Driver Sampling | 713 | 702 | |
| Total % of Teen Drivers Wearing a Seat Belt | 75.63% | 86.74% | +14.69% |
| Teen Passenger Sampling | 224 | 224 | |
| Total % of Teen Passengers Wearing a Seat Belt | 63.17% | 68.08% | +7.78% |
| First Year Schools (i.e., the first year that a school completed this activity) (n=2 schools) |
|||
| Teen Driver Sampling | 15 | 18 | |
| Total % of Teen Drivers Wearing a Seat Belt | 80.00% | 83.00% | +3.75% |
| Teen Passenger Sampling | 29 | 55 | |
| Total % of Teen Passengers Wearing a Seat Belt | 61.93% | 74.64% | +20.52% |
| Multi-Year Schools (the latest year that a school completed this activity) (n=3 schools) |
|||
| Teen Driver Sampling |
698 | 684 | |
| Total % of Teen Drivers Wearing a Seat Belt | 75.53% | 86.83% | +14.96% |
| Teen Passenger Sampling | 195 | 169 | |
| Total % of Teen Passengers Wearing a Seat Belt | 63.35% | 65.95% | +4.10% |