Teenageer With Spinal Cord Injury In Kansas The leading cause of long term disability and death among teenagers and young adults is head and spinal cord injury. More than 5,000 head and spinal cord injuries occur each year in Kansas alone. The burden to Kansas residents is more than $50 million. Nearly 50 percent of all head and spinal cord injuries occur in motor vehicle crashes, where safety belts and safety helmets could have a positive effect on the outcome. The goal of Phase II of the Head Injury Prevention Program is to reduce the number of head and spinal cord injuries occurring as a result of motor vehicle crashes. Specific objectives include: Educating junior and senior high school students and others about the causes and consequences of head and spinal cord injury Raising awareness about disabilities and disability issues to encourage risk management behaviors In the first phase of this project, a staff member from the Head Injury Association of Kansas and Greater Kansas and a volunteer from Kansas City traveled throughout Kansas conducting 70-90 prevention education programs annually. This process helped introduce the issue of head and spinal cord injury prevention to schools, but it also proved limiting in the amount of time spent with each school.