More than 2,400 high school, middle school and technology students from across Oklahoma are expected to join the Oklahoma Family Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) virtual safe driving event Thursday.
Students will learn how to spot motorcycles, drive safely around semi-trucks or energy equipment and see a wrecked car in which a family was killed by a distracted driver. They also will role-play how to say no to a distracted driver and be introduced to other safe driving topics including safe walking, safe biking, and the dangers of alcohol, other drugs, and driving.
“This Oklahoma Challenge conference is unique because it encourages teens to address safe driving by taking this information back to their schools and communities and share the message with their peers,” Richard Coberg, Ph.D., founder of the Oklahoma Challenge Project, said.
The purpose of the LEAD/Oklahoma Challenge conference is to teach students ways they can reduce crashes, injuries, and deaths in their local communities.
“We are proud to continue our tradition of bringing the best and the brightest safety professionals and information to the FCCLA even this year when our schools learning environments have been redesigned for the global pandemic. We know that teens talking to teens about this lifesaving issue, works, they listen to each other. To save lives we must continue this conversation,” Dr. Coberg said.
Several programs are highlighting this year’s event. On the agenda is Joel Feldman, whose daughter was killed by a distracted driver. Feldman will be sharing national resources as well as guiding students through role plays to help them practice saying no to a distracted driver. To keep students engaged with this information and reinforce positive personal behavior change, a new distracted driving app and online competition will also be announced.
The goal of the Oklahoma Challenge is to reduce the numbers of deaths and injuries throughout the state due to youth driving distracted and not properly wearing their seat belts. At this virtual conference, FCCLA students learn about the growing problem of distracted driving, current laws against texting and driving, and ways in which they can develop a plan to raise awareness and change behavior around the issue in their community. Students return home to share the message, teen to teen. Students have access to information, statistics, speakers, and other programs from the OklahomaChallenge.org website to enrich their projects in their school and community.
Every year, about 1.6 million people are injured in crashes involving a driver who was distracted in some way. Each year, more than 390,000 wrecks caused by texting while driving lead to severe injuries. Each day, nine people are killed in crashes involving a distracted driver. Seat belts saved an estimated 14,955 lives. However, seat belt usage has gone down from 90.1 percent in 2016 to 89.6 percent in 2018.
“Most people do not realize the enormity of the distracted driving epidemic, which disproportionally hurts and kills young drivers who are learning to drive yet are driving distracted,” Linda Terrell, director of the Oklahoma Challenge, said. “It can be a deadly combination. The problem is very serious in Oklahoma, where 76 drivers younger than the age of 21 were involved in fatal crashes in 2019,” Terrell said.
Other groups presenting traffic safety information include Safe Kids, Oklahoma Highway Safety Office, Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office Traffic Safety Educators, ATV Ridesafe Oklahoma, AAA, the Oklahoma Insurance Department, Energize for Safety Coalition, Rock Creek Consulting, the Oklahoma National Guard, Drug Recognition Experts, LifeShare OK, ABATE and the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.
Founded in 1984, the Oklahoma Challenge Project is offered through a grant from the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office and funded in part by a grant from State Farm and the Oklahoma State Medical Association Foundation, and is delivered through Educational Alternatives, a private nonprofit dedicated to youth empowerment. Oklahoma FCCLA serves more than 12,000 members in 406 local chapters located in junior and senior high schools and on technology center campuses. Known as the ‘ultimate leadership experience,” FCCLA is a dynamic national student organization that helps young men and women become leaders and address important personal, family, work and societal issues through CareerTech’s Family and Consumer Sciences Education courses.