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MUNCY - Parents received a drive-by lesson in seat belt safety Wednesday morning as they dropped their children off at Ward L. Myers Elementary School.

Hot pink "flying elephant" flyers were given to parents at the entranceway to the school, along with a quick lesson on how an unrestrained adult has the force of an elephant in a vehicle crash.

Muncy Chief of Police Richard J. Sutton said he held a similar event last spring, which prompted the idea of educating parents because more parents than children were found unbuckled.

"The observation last May was that many kids generally are buckled," said Chris Smith, highway safety specialist. "That was the incentive to develop this flyer (to hand out to parents)."

The project was approved by the state Department of Transportation for design and development through the Community Traffic Safety Project. The idea was so well received that it will be featured on PennDOT's Web site and distributed via e-mail or handed out at Mansfield University, Lycoming College and Pennsylvania College of Technology, according to Smith.

"I've been doing this 32 years," Sutton said. "I've seen accidents with people who, if they didn't have their seat belt on, would've been a lot worse."

"In the event of a crash, (parents) are going to have the force of an elephant," Smith said. "You pose a risk not only to yourself but a risk to everyone involved."

Smith said that in May, when notifying a parent of the potential force the human body wields in a car accident, that they immediately decided to buckle up, simply due to the fact that he could injure his child.

As parents streamed into the driveway of Myers Elementary, a few parents were found unbuckled and a few kids not properly strapped into booster seats or the shoulder straps left neglected.

Overall, many parents and kids alike were found safely strapped in.

"We recommend kids 12 and under be in the backseat because of the force of passenger airbags," said Michael Hess, safety press officer with PennDOT. "Any child under 8 years old should be in a booster seat."

Hess noticed that some of the students seemed "borderline" as far as being able to sit up front or without a booster seat.

Sutton said that by educating parents before the holiday at the school gives a chance for them to have interaction with the local authorities.

"This shows that we are friendly and we care about the safety of their kids," Sutton said.