Looking at photos of the car wreck on his phone, Boonville High School senior Jaylen Butner said the only reason he survived is because he wore a seat belt.
While he doesn't remember much from that Saturday morning wreck more than two years ago, the scars from the head-on collision still follow Butner today. After the wreck, he went through multiple surgeries and physical therapies to fix his arm, jaw and leg.
"I'm thankful to be alive," he said. "Every day I wake up, I think back to that day and I think back to when I woke up and I'm just thankful to be alive.
"The only reason I'm here today is because of my seat belt. If you were to see a picture of the car wreck, you would understand that if I hadn't been wearing it, I would be under the seat of a pickup truck - a pretty big one, too."
Butner, along with several Missouri mayors gathered Wednesday in Jefferson City to promote the Buckle Up/Phone Down campaign, encouraged people to wear their seat belts and for drivers to either put down their cellphones or turn them off.
The initiative also encourages businesses to require seat belt use and ban cellphone use in all company vehicles.
More than 2,100 individuals and almost 300 businesses have accepted the challenge since the Missouri Department of Transportation implemented the Buckle Up/Phone Down campaign more than a year ago.
The Missouri Mayors United for Progress voted Wednesday to ask legislatures to enact a primary seat belt law and an all-driver texting ban, saying these two laws are vital to road safety.
Between 2014-16, 62 percent of vehicle drivers and passengers were unbuckled, according to MoDOT's website. Only nine states rank lower in safety belt use than Missouri.
Missouri has a secondary seat belt law, in which drivers must be pulled over for another violation before they can receive fines for not wearing a seat belt.
Kansas City Mayor Sly James said a seat belt law should apply to all seats in a vehicle, not just the driver's.
Butner was a vehicle passenger when his friend swerved to avoid a braking car, striking a truck head-on.
"What we have to remember is it impacts every single person in that vehicle, even people who are buckled up," James said. "It's not just a matter of having the drivers and the front-seat passengers buckled up, but everybody in the vehicle needs to be buckled up. The last thing you need in a SUV is to have people in the third row or second row acting like pinballs, bouncing around in an accident and hurting people who don't need to be hurt."
Missouri is one of three states that does not have an all-texting ban, according to MoDOT's website. The state currently prohibits texting only for drivers younger than 21 years old.
Jefferson City Mayor Carrie Tergin said while people may say an all-texting ban violates personal liberties, drivers of all ages should avoid texting and driving. Since 47 states enforce all-texting bans, she added, Missouri should not be different.
In 2016, there was an 11 percent increase in reported crashes involving cellphones, according to MoDOT. Texting and driving increases the chance of a car accident by 50 percent.
Florissant Mayor Tom Schneider said while texting and driving is detrimental today, it will get worse with later generations.
"In the old days it was a beer bottle or whiskey bottle that was causing most of the accidents, and that's still very important. We don't want to forget our laws to enforce the alcohol level, not driving while impaired, but (texting and driving) is actually causing worse problems," he said. "It's an epidemic and the next generation is worse, so we need to get a handle on it now. We need to have state laws that encourage people to use these things prudently."