Kelly Maradiaga was caught by the Dawson County Sheriff's Office driving safe on Feb. 25 at the local high school.

Maradiaga received a driving "citation" for driving a safe speed and for always wearing her seatbelt.

She also received six pizzas for her and her friends, donated by Dominos Pizza.

"When I first thought of this program, it seemed like every year we had some kids that would lose their life in accidents," said Maj. Tony Wooten of the Dawson County Sheriff's Office. "We used this as an opportunity to think of some way to do something positive. We now have kids riding down the road and tugging on their seatbelts to show officers that they are driving safe."

Wooten said that the officers do notice the safe driving coming from the students.

"The school resource officers watch them and notice the ones that are making an effort to drive safely and we pick somebody," he said. "It's really just to say thanks for being a young kid that's taking the steps to drive safely."

Dawson County High School Resource Officer Ron Bray said that one student in particular always stuck out to him.

"Every time I saw Kelly out in the road in the morning, she was always driving slow and had her seatbelt on," he said. "When she leaves school she does the same."

Maradiaga said that she contributes her safe driving to good habits.

"I was taught to always wear your seatbelt," she said. "It's very important to remember ‘Safety first.'"

"Anything we can do to keep them thinking about safety," said Wooten. "If we can get them in the habit of driving safely now, it'll carry over later."