Several people join ‘Saved by the Belt’ club at King’s Island event

MASON — Nine people joined the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s “Saved by the Belt” club at an event at King’s Island on Saturday.

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The recipients recognized at the amusement park were from the Jackson, Piqua, and Wilmington districts, according to a spokesperson from OSHP.

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Each recipient received a framed Saved by the Belt certificate, license plate, and license plate bracket.

King’s Island gave the recipients and their family members one-day admission tickets to the park.

The following people joined the “Saved by the Belt” club:

• Dustin Akers, 27, Proctorville
• Reba L. Gilbert, 71, Dayton
• Bobbi Gilkerson, 17, Lebanon
• Elaine P. Halterman, 38, Urbana
• Chase Lambert, 18, Lebanon
• Curtis Blake Payne, 25, Beaver
• Sarah VanDyke, 23, Zanesfield
• Timothy W. Walker, 46, Milford
• Wanda L. Walters, 88, Huber Heights

The Saved by the Belt nomination recognizes those who wore a seat belt when involved in a crash, subsequently avoiding serious injury or death, the spokesperson said.

From 2019 to now, there have been 292,000 unbelted crashes throughout Ohio. More than 2,900 of those crashes were deadly.

“During that same time, more than 60% of all fatal crashes involved an unbelted individual when a safety belt was available,” the spokesperson said.

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