Teen driving
Alex Brown was texting when she died.
Her mother found her lying outside of her vehicle coming in and out of consciousness right before she died.
She was a beautiful high school senior. Her family is trying to convince other people not to text and drive.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/zEiBVfvnR6c]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_93kRFNe3E&feature=endscreen
I just Googled "unusual car crash facts" and came across an article by InfoBarrel. Here are the facts with my *thoughts. 1. About 40% of crashes that are fatal involve alcohol. If the accident takes place between midnight and 3am the percentage increases to about 75%.
***having been a waitress I can unofficially confirm that most people on the roads in the evening have been drinking. I used to be amazed at the amount of drunk or highly buzzed people getting into their cars at the valet line as I walked back to my car after my shift. So, there's my research there. Oh and just living life, I think we might be able to concur on this fact. Although MADD has done an AMAZING job at helping lower the amount of drunk drivers!
2. On average 15 pedestrian school children are killed by school buses each year. These deaths tend to take place between 3pm and 4pm on weekdays.
**This is news to me.
3. Survey's suggest that male drivers cause twice as many accidents as female drivers.
**I can say that the couple of times I have felt very unsafe have been with young male drivers. Either trying to show off for me, this was a long time ago, or show off for the other males in the car. I believe this one. Which make me wonder, ladies does a speeder turn you on or a safe driver?
4. Different types of car accidents include head on collisions, rollovers, rear enders, suicides, side impacts and more. The most deadly of these accidents are the vehicle rollovers.
**My best friend in LA died in a rollover in 2008 here. Sucks all around.
5. People between the ages of 16-20 face a higher chance of being injured or killed in a car crash over any other age group.
**disheartening, teenagers are such a different mentality. I kind of understand this one.
6. Most car accidents actually occur within 5 kilometres from home. There is a common misconception that car accidents occur while travelling to a vacation destination, but this is not the case.
**Easy to forget this one.
7. Car accidents are the most common and most deadly source of personal injury in the world.
**Hellooooooo world. Let's change this.
8. Cars that are more prone to accidents are sports cars and hatchbacks. Although cars that have a bigger engine that have the greatest chance in being in a car accident.
**Wondering what the variable is, the sports car or the driver of a sports car? Why do cars with bigger engine have the greatest chance of getting into a car accident? That requires a google or my human google machine, my spouse. OK just googled it and Freakonomics answered that. Here is what they say:
Ever since the SUV craze began in the late 1980s, we’ve all known that heavier vehicles are safer for those driving them, but more dangerous for others on the road. Which is why we all started driving them.
We show that, controlling for own-vehicle weight, being hit by a vehicle that is 1,000 pounds heavier results in a 47% increase in the baseline fatality probability. Estimation results further suggest that the fatality risk is even higher if the striking vehicle is a light truck (SUV, pickup truck, or minivan).
9. Each year, approximately 300,000 teens are injured in a car crash. In the United States alone 5,000 teens die each year. On average that equals to 14 teens a day.
**Very sad. Moms, we need to change this stat. Stat.
10. Your chances of getting into a car crash while talking on a cellphone increases by 400%.
**Get off your phone while driving. Get your friends of their phones. Get your mom off her phone and dad. Never, ever worth it.
More than 1,000 children and young adults are killed in car crashes. [youtube=http://youtu.be/3MKVtsLkGOc]
"She hit my daughter with her 5,000 pound SUV." That resonates.
Every day.
http://youtu.be/rr7TfwtO17I
Every single day.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/VAsBc6cswl8]
And yet we are accepting this as OK. Bring up the conversation with your family over Thanksgiving. I'm curious to hear what they'd say. Do they blame car crashes on luck, fate, other bad drivers? Ask them if they speed. Do they text and drive? Do they think everyone on the road is a jerk?
I actually like most people. I'd say I like 99.9% of people I meet.
For as many poor judgements I see taken on the road I remind myself I would probably enjoying talking to the person behind the wheel.
Let's start talking about this.
And make it so that 1,000 children and young adults are not dying every day in car crashes.
I connected with Act Out Loud's Julie Kettner via Twitter. She is Act Out Loud's National Campaign Manager. This is a guest post by her. Car crashes are the no. 1 cause of death and injuries for teens in the United States. We want to change those statistics and we know the best people to do it – teens themselves!
Act Out Loud is a teen-led contest held each May as part of Global Youth Traffic Safety Month hosted by National Organizations for Youth Safety® (NOYS) and funded by The Allstate Foundation. At NOYS, we know that peer-to-peer interaction creates change, so we ask teens to ACT OUT LOUD to take back the streets for safety. Over 300 high schools across the country participate in Act Out Loud and we want more teens involved in this movement to spread traffic safety messages through fun projects while earning great prizes!
This year high school Act Out Loud teams will plan a school rally to take place in May as part of Global Youth Traffic Safety Month. As they plan this rally, there are fun projects along the way to help their team earn up to $1,000, and qualify for the grand prize of $10,000! The projects are simple and can be done in a number of ways. In addition to the $1,000, teams also receive a FREE toolkit full of resources like pens, pencils, buttons, wristbands, thumb bands, posters, postcards, and much more to use at their rallies.
We have many other opportunities for youth to be involved and win prizes. Check out www.ActOutLoud.org for all the contest details and www.NOYS.org for more information about us.
Please contact Julie Kettner at jkettner@noys.org with questions. You can follow us on Twitter @NOYSNoise and Facebook www.facebook.com/4NOYS or www.facebook.com/ActOutLoud.
I just read about a terrible accident in Ohio which claimed the lives of three young girls. In the article I read it said that the truck los control and hit a tree.
I realize that when the article was published, perhaps, evidence was not conclusive and so facts were not known. But I think it is dangerous territory we wade into when we say things like, "the car lost control." A more recent report from the Huffington Post says that speeding from the young driver was involved.
I cringe when local newscasters talk about 3 car pileups that will soon be cleared. In fact, I appreciate 91.5 FM's for that fact that their morning on air personality Dennis Bartel will note that he hopes the people are OK who are in the accidents. He is the only news figure in LA I have heard regularly acknowledge that there are people inside the "piled up" cars that prove to inconvenience us so much.
Cars do not lose control.
We have lost control.
We are driving around powerful, heavy, dangerous modern inventions that we are killing each other with.
That is the way the car should be talked about right now.
I wonder what the inventor of the car, Mr. Benz, would think if he knew how many people now die daily in cars?
Project Yellow Light is heading up an anti-distracted driving video contest for high school students and college age students to apply. Scholarships are awarded to winners and more, see below. Here is the winning video from last year, warning, it's creative and bound to make you feel.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKe5SrUwEGI&feature=youtu.be]
Wooh. Powerful.
According to D!straction.gov this contest is being held:
To build greater awareness among teens on the dangers of distracted driving, the U.S. DOT, Mazda Motorsports, Project Yellow Light, the Ad Council and the National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) are co-sponsoring a nationwide search for the best viral video with a message against distracted driving. Now in its second year, the contest will expand to both high school and college students. The winning PSAs will be announced as part of Global Youth Traffic Safety Month® in May 2013 and will be distributed nationally by the Ad Council. Winners will receive prizes that include college scholarships and One-Day Teen Survival Skills Classes at the Skip Barber Racing School, presented by Mazda Motorsports.
For information visit Project Yellow Light.
Project Yellow Light is a scholarship competition designed to bring about change. As an applicant you have one clear mission: encourage your peers to develop and embrace safe driving habits.
It is National Teen Drive Safely Week this week. Join Fix The Toaster tomorrow for a twitter party use the hashtag #teendriving2012 to join in.
The Center for Injury Research and Prevention at CHOP @SafetyMD will be hosting this live chat.
It will take place between 3-4EST. That is 12-1for us West coast dudes.
