ENID, OK – Crashed motorcycle, semi-truck, energy equipment, driving with impaired goggles around cones, a wrecked car in which a family was killed by a distracted driver, a high energy game show format along with multiple other safe driving, safe walking interactive learning opportunities will fill the day for 500 Oklahoma Family Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) students who are gathering at Chisholm Trail Expo Center in Enid at their LEAD/Oklahoma Challenge conference to learn ways they can reduce crashes, injuries, and deaths in their local communities.
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"This Oklahoma Challenge conference is unique because it encourages teens to address safe driving in the western part of Oklahoma where young people are driving distracted around large trucks and other oil and gas equipment” said Richard Coberg, Ph.D., Founder of the Oklahoma Challenge Project. "We are proud to be working with Oklahoma's FCCLA student group and the Energize for Safety Coalition to have teens talking to teens about this lifesaving issue. They will be taking this message back to their schools to spread the word. They listen to each other.”
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“In our Oklahoma communities where energy is developed or transported, everyone plays a role in safety” said Tom Robins, Founder and President of the Energize for Safety Coalition. “Recently we did a poll of oil and gas leaders focused on safety issues in the western part of Oklahoma and distracted driving, especially by youth, was one of the top concerns. We are excited to help bring these students a day of learning and experiencing traffic safety in a personal, hands-on way with industry leaders sharing their experience.”
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Several national programs are highlighting this event. On the agenda is information from State Farm on Teens in the Driver Seat®, the first peer-to-peer program for teens that focuses solely on traffic safety and addresses all major risks for this age group; ThinkFast Interactive, an evidence-informed prevention intervention, uniquely designed to educate young people, connecting them in a game-show format to relevant information related to traffic-safety issues. In addition to hearing from these and other traffic safety experts, event attendees are treated to lunch courtesy of the Oklahoma National Guard.
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The goal of the Oklahoma Challenge is to reduce the numbers of deaths and injuries throughout the state due to distracted driving. At this conference local 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. They return home to share the message, teen to teen. They have access to information, statistics, speakers, and other programs from the OklahomaChallenge.org website to enrich their projects in their school and community.
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Each FCCLA Chapter is given signs to put in their parking lots for a visual reminder of the Oklahoma laws against texting and driving and speeding and the enforcement of seat belt use. Every year, about 421,000 people are injured in crashes involving a driver who was distracted in some way. Each year, over 330,000 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 14,668 lives and could have saved an additional 2,456 people if they had been wearing seat belts.
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"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. It can be a deadly combination." Linda Terrell, Oklahoma Challenge Director said. “The problem is very serious in Oklahoma, where traffic crashes account for 44 percent of all teen deaths.”
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Other groups presenting traffic safety information include Safe Kids, ATV Ridesafe Oklahoma, AAA, the Oklahoma Insurance Dept, Pioneer Telephone Commit to Drive Don't Text, Oklahoma Operation Lifesaver, LifeShare OK, AAA, Oklahoma Farm Bureau, Oklahoma Highway Patrol, ABATE, and Move Over.
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Founded in 1984, the Oklahoma Challenge Project is offered through a grant from the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office with financial support from State Farm, the Oklahoma State Medical Association Foundation, the Energize for Safety Coalition, and the Oklahoma National Guard and is delivered through Educational Alternatives, a private non-profit dedicated to youth empowerment. Oklahoma FCCLA serves more than 13,000 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.
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Oklahoma FCCLA Students attend Safe Driving Event
