Nova Scotia transportation safety officials say they may have to do a u-turn on their programming plans after they discovered nearly 50 per cent of teens aren’t following the decades-old rule to buckle up at all times when they’re in a car.

The officials spent six weeks in schools this spring to address drug use and driving, but instead, they found they needed to focus on the more traditional law of using a seat belt.

"A lot of these children taught us as adults how to wear our seat belts," said Krise Jones, a road safety committee coordinator. "Why are they not wearing it? It was quite surprising."

Nova Scotia’s seat belt law was put into effect nearly 30 years ago, so Jones just assumed that the large majority would be following it by now.

Increased risk

Jones held several safety sessions with grade 10 and 11 students at Millwood High School in Lower Sackville.

"What came out was the lack of seatbelt use within that age group," she said. "They were saying about 50 per cent of them were wearing their seatbelts."

One student told CBC she didn’t bother to buckle-up when she’s going short distances.

Jones said that’s the same message she’s hearing from the teens, and it’s troubling.

"Thirty per cent of the people that are dying on our roadways is because they don’t have their seatbelt on."

Jones said she’ll now spend time investigating why students aren’t buckling-up and see how she can switch their habits.