Distracted Driving Newspaper Article

Next week's news article, featured in the Smyrna Sun Times in the SHS Eagle Eye section will be all about distracted driving. This week's article was written by our own Melissa Hubert.

Driving With Distractions
by Melissa Hubert
Eagle Eye Staff

Almost everyone is guilty of the Soaring Eagles' driving topic this week. While driving, there are many things that can take your attention from the road. Studies show that distractions are a factor in a quarter of all crashes, equaling more than 4,300 accidents in a day.

The most common distractions include talking on the phone, texting, eating, playing with the radio, talking with passengers, and lacking sleep. These tasks might not seem dangerous, but one second of inattentiveness can be life threatening.

Cell phone usage is the number one cause of distraction among driver. People using cell phones in their car are four times more likely to get in an accident serious enough to be injured. Distractions due to cell phones delay a person's reaction time as much as having a blood alcohol concentration of .08%, the legal limit.

Many people think that they can solve this problem using hands-free devices with their phones. The truth is that the danger is still there because your full attention isn't focused on the road. Driving while having a phone conversation reduces the amount of brain activity used to keep focused on the road by 37%.

Taking you eyes and mind off the road when you're behind the wheel not only endangers your life, but others' as well. It's much safer and easier to complete tasks by simply waiting until you've arrived at our destination, or pulling over to the side of the road. Being responsible and focused while driving will make you a better driver and possibly save your life!

Going Beyond Local...

We are EXTREMELY happy and we've got good reason to be, too! This week we were featured in the Delaware State News, Dover's newspaper. There was a full article with pictures and everything. The article explained our cause and the activities we plan to do and what we've already done. This is a big step for us because it isn't just local Smyrna anymore. We've gone beyond Smyrna and into other cities as well. Many people read Delaware State News, so now our name is even more well known now than we ever thought it would be!

Seatbelt Check Results!

By now you probably know that our seatbelt check last week was pretty successful. We are very excited to announce that out of everyone that drove to school last Wednesday, about 116 people had their seatbelts on, while only seven did not. As you know, we gave out Smarties to those who had their seatbelts on and Dum Dum lollipops to the ones who didn't. We ran out of Smarties quickly!

Drinking and Driving Week!

This week we wanted to focus on drinking and driving, so we tried to think of an activity in which we could include everyone in school. We thought, with prom not too far away, this would be the perfect topic. So we decided to get everyone involved in a contest during lunches. We named the activity "Blow a Bubble not a Breathalizer." Students had to come to our table and pledge to not drink and drive and sign our giant poster, which will be hung in a central location in the school. After people pledged, they got to take two pieces of bubble gum. If they wanted to, they could get together with a group of about five people and have a bubble blowing contest! The winners were judged by us and they won a big cookie. We also had drunk goggles that students could put on. They were able to simulate the attempt of walking in a straight line while under the influence. This seemed to have been our most successful activity yet!

As a Followup

Standing with our school Human resources councelor and police officer, Officer Bill.

As a followup to Seatbelt Safety Week last week, we were able to contact local Delaware Community Traffic Safety Program (CTSP) Coordinator, Merrit Burke IV, from University of Delaware. He visited Smyrna High yesterday to help re-paint the "buckle up" signs on the two entryways leading into the school parking lots. He showed us how to paint the signs using stencils and then putting reflective beads on the paint to make it more noticeable. Now they look brand new!

First we had to sweep away all the rocks and dust. Then we laid a stensil over the old sign and painted it with white.

After pulling away the stencil, we had our final product.

Last week we also met with Brooks Banta, the Delaware Kent County Levy Court Representative. We presented him with a Safe Driving pin and he then gave us some of his own opinions on safe driving. We disussed what we've done so far and what we plan to do. He responded to many of our ideas and agreed with some of our points on distracted driving, saying that talking and texting on cell phones while driving is especially dangerous for teens. He said he tries to be as safe as possible when it comes to using phones on the roads. He uses speaker phone whenever possible and he pulls over to the side of the road if he must make a phone call that takes more than five minutes. Afterwards, he discussed some of the county's upcoming plans.

Progress So Far

We just want to thank everyone for supporting us so far. We know that we just announced this morning that everyone should sign the petition for NOYS and we've already gotten a great response. We looked at the list of signatures and we know for sure that we have at least 44 people who've signed it from Smyrna High so far. This even includes teachers and our principal. Also, the Facebook page seems to be a big hit. We have about 90 members now.

Pretty soon we'll have the results, pictures, and video from the Seatbelt check on Wednesday. They are impressive... Let's just say that we ran out of Smarties! ;)

Seat Belt News Article

This week's news article, which will be featured in the Smyrna Sun Times, dealt with this week's theme: seatbelts. The article mentions the accident in our last post...

Seatbelt Safety

Seatbelt us saves lives! However, one-quarter of youth do not use their seatbelts- this is the worst non-belt use rate of any age group.

If you could save friends' lives by asking them to fasten their seatbelts, would you? If you were asked, by a friend, to put your on, would you? Statistics tell us 69% of youth would ask a teen driver to fasten their seatbelt, but only 24% of the drivers polled said they would fasten their seatbelt if asked by a passenger.

In August, 2008, five members of Smyrna High's Class of 2008 were traveling in a car that flipped one and a half times. All five were transported to the hospital via ambulance. And all five walked out of the hospital on their own.

Why? Because all were wearing their seatbelts. The outcome of this could have been horrific. Instead, it's a lesson for all of us.

Ask any of these five and they will say the same thing... 'Wear your seatbelt!" They no longer believe "it can't happen to me..." And they buckle up... every time.

If you can believe it...

This week was seat belt safety week, and as we've said before, we will be putting up weekly discussion boards on our Facebook page, "Smyrna Drives to Save Lives!". This week, because we focused on seat belts, we posted four questions that group members could reply to and comment about, one of which was whether or not they or a family member or close friend had ever been involved in a car accident and how seat belts were involved. Did the seat belts make a difference and how might the situation have been any different if seat belts were not used? Out of the responses, some of them invloved a recent accident that we will never forget.

The above crash ivolved some very close friends and family members of ours. The car rolled one and a half times and none of the people in the car were under the influence or drinking alcohol. All five people were rushed to the hospital...

Luckily, all of them were able to walk out of the hospital that very night. We are all very fortunate, because if they hadn't been wearing their seatbelts, they could have been extremely hurt or worse. They might not even be with us today. This incident is a constant reminder that seatbelts are life savers. Wearing them makes all the difference.

Discussions

Hey everyone! Now that our facebook page is up and running, we'll be starting a new discussion board every week . We'll ask questions about a certain topic and everyone can answer them and leave comments. Everyone can participate! This week's topic is seatbelts.

Oh, The Possibilities...

This week we all met at a local restaurant to make plans for our campaign.

We have many things in store, including a Facebook page, which by the way, has already been put into effect. We just made it yesterday and we already have many members. Over 45! At dinner we discussed ways in which we can further reach out within the community. One of our upcoming activities will be a surprise seatbelt check at school in the morning. We'll check to see if students are wearing their seatbelts on the way to school. If they are, they'll recieve a Smarties candy. If they aren't, they'll get a Dum-Dum lollipop.

Here's our new facebook page!

P.S. We also spent quite some time marvelling over our newly acquired video camera for the project :)

Our Newspaper Debut!

As part of our way to kick off our safe driving campaign we'll be putting this article, written by one of our committee members, in our local newspaper. We thought that in this way, we could reach more people!

Eagles Drive to Save Lives

Every year the Act Out Load Organization holds a contest for safe driving. This year five students at Smyrna High School were chosen to participate in the national contest. Emiley Conboy, Kasey Spadafino, Melissa Hubert, Kailyn Asbury, and Maggie Humphrey are all juniors and are members of the team that is trying to make the roads a safer place. The team name is Soaring Eagles and their motto is “Smyrna Drives to Save Lives.” The Contest is running March through May. During this time the group will be taping and blogging about their attempts to influence the public to drive safely. The Soaring Eagles have several avenues they will take to accomplish their goals. They will first have a weekly column in the Eagle Eye portion of the newspaper. To go along with these tips there will be commercials that will be on the morning announcement s, as well as posters hung up all over school. The team will be sponsoring safe driving pledges and will encourage students and faculty to sign them. There will be pictures taken of students who sign them and they will be put on display. There will also be a Facebook group dedicated to the Soaring Eagles and their safe driving campaign. Students who support the cause are welcome to join. The team also has created a special ribbon with a road pattern which will be given out to those who support the cause and want to raise awareness for the various dangers of bad driving habits. The final results of the contest will be determined by a vote near the end of the school year. Keep your eyes on the road and adhere to the tips and information that will be coming up from the Soaring Eagles. It may just save your life.