In an effort to impress upon high school students the dangers associated with drinking and driving, students at Daniel J. Gross Catholic High School in Omaha, Nebraska recently experienced impaired driving first hand through the use of a simulator. The State Farm Insurance program known as “Celebrate My Drive” allowed students to do things such as watch a rollover crash and ride a bike while wearing impairment goggles.
Administrators at the high school wanted to be sure that students, who will be out driving en mass soon to homecoming, understand the dangers of drinking and driving as well as engaging in other high risk driving behaviors. To do that, the school teamed up with the State Farm Insurance program. The program brings various interactive “stations” into a school, with each station educating students about some high risk driving behavior typically linked to teenage drivers.
“We know that our students text and drive. That’s a reality. We want them to know that we care about them and want them back. We want them to arrive safely wherever they’re going. We want them to realize that eight teens a day do die. And want to raise their awareness and concentrate on the road.” said Michele Sweetmon, a campus minister at Gross.
Throughout the day, students were able to visit stations that included things such as “Family Feud” where they were questioned about the top reasons for distracted driving, a rollover simulator where they could experience what a rollover crash was actually like, and riding a bike with goggles on that made the students drive as though they were impaired.
Nationally, statistics relating to teenage drinking and driving are staggering. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or MADD, half of all 10th graders admit to drinking alcohol. Kids who start drinking at a young age are seven times more likely to be involved in an alcohol related driving accident. Finally, car accidents are the leading cause of teenage deaths in the U.S. and 25 percent of those crashes involve a teenage driver who is under the influence of alcohol at the time of the collision.
If you been charged with driving under the influence in Nebraska, or you have a child who has been charged with an alcohol related driving offense, contact the Petersen Law Office 24 hours a day at 402-513-2180 to discuss your case with an experienced DUI defense attorney.
Attorney Petersen was invited to join the National Advocacy for DUI Defense (NAFDD) organization in 2013. NAFDD vets thousands of lawyers and only chooses those who have achieved stellar results in DUI defense cases. Attorney Petersen was named one of the Top 50 defense attorneys in Nebraska out of more than 5,000.
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