FCCLA Students Assist in Distracted Driver Study

Allstate Roadwatch
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FCCLA Students Assist in Distracted Driver Study

 

MISSION – Sharyland High School Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) assisted the Allstate Foundation in collecting information this week as part of a study on distracted driving. The members conducted a Roadwatch to look for distracted student drivers as they were leaving the school for the day.

FCCLA members looked for student drivers who were texting, talking on their cell phone, eating or drinking, putting on makeup, tuning the radio or had a high volume radio, were distracted by passengers, or any other distractions that could take the driver’s focus off of the road. They were also asked to provide any additional insights, details or thoughts about the distractions.

According to Allstate, car crashes are the number one killer for American teens. The holiday season can be a dangerous time for teen drivers. Allstate held the event to raise awareness about the dangers of distracted driving during the holidays in this statewide campaign. Allstate decided to do the program now just before teens are out of school and on the busy roads more during winter break.

During the Roadwatch, at least 25 FCCLA chapters at high schools across the state spent one half hour, on Tuesday, Dec. 4, near an exit of their school’s parking lot. The students were to tally the number of teen drivers engaged in distracted driving behaviors. The results from the campaign will be collected and used in a report aimed at educating teens on practicing safer driving habits.

Allstate and the FCCLA teen volunteers hope to save lives through sharing the results of the Roadwatch report. The teens collected the data so they can have effective peer-to-peer conversations about what they saw and why it is so dangerous. Hopefully, it will also spur discussions regarding other startling statistics on distracted driving, said Kristin Beaman, with Allstate Insurance Company.

Beaman hopes conversations revolve around how text messaging creates a crash risk 23 times worse than driving while not distracted; how sending or receiving a text takes a driver’s eyes from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, the equivalent-at 55 mph-of driving the length of an entire football field, blind; how drivers who use hand-held devices are four times more likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves; that 40 percent of American teens say they have been in a car when the driver used a cell phone in a way that put people in danger; and that in 2010, 3,092 people were killed in crashes involving a distracted driver and an estimated 416,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving a distracted driver, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

This is the first year Allstate is implementing the program in Texas since 2008. The results of the surveys will be available Dec. 19.

Submitted By: Myriam A. Garza

Sharyland high School

Sharyland FCCLA

Email:[email protected]

 Phone: 956-605-7485

 

Written by: Carina Brunson Sharyland Times