County ranks high in state for teens killed in auto accidents
By Leanne Smith
Jackson Citizen Patriot
SPRINGPORT, Mich. (AP) — Jackson County is on a list that Springport High School’s conceptual physics class isn’t very happy about.
Neither is Napoleon High School’s National Honor Society or Vandercook Lake High School’s Most Teens Don’t organization.
The list puts Jackson County among the top Michigan counties for teen traffic fatalities and serious injuries. While this is frightening to students at these schools, the ranking also gives them the opportunity to do something to change those statistics.
Springport, Napoleon and Vandercook Lake all have received $2,000 grants this year from Michigan’s Strive For A Safer Drive program, sponsored by AAA Michigan, Ford Driving Skills for Life and the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning. The money must be used for campaigns that help teens talk to teens about safe driving in the hopes of reducing serious crashes, injuries and fatalities.
“One text message can change your life forever,” 15-year-old Samantha Wagner, a Springport High School sophomore, told the Jackson Citizen Patriot.
Springport’s campaign slogan is “U Txt.Ur Next.” Some of the facts students are using to bring the message home include that a car can travel the length of a football field in the time it takes someone to read a text message while driving, and that those who text and drive are 23 time more likely to get into an accident.
“It’s just not that important to text ‘K’ or ‘LOL’ while you’re driving,” Wagner said. “Texting can be fatal.”
In all three schools, students have done surveys, hosted assemblies, asked students to sign safe driving pledges and offered give-away items like shirts, key chains and bumper stickers that carry their safe driving messages.
Vandercook Lake was the only Jackson County high school to participate in the Strive For A Safer Drive program last year. It took first place in its division with a program that resulted in a 10-percent reduction in distracted driving by its students, said teacher Rita McVey, the school’s Most Teens Don’t advisor.
Vandercook hopes to capitalize on those gains with this year’s program “Stop, Think, Drive,” McVey said.
“These kids really put in a lot of hard work to get the whole school involved,” McVey said. “But it pays off. You hear them telling each other about what they’ve learned and you know they’re thinking about it.”
Napoleon’s campaign is “We Treasure Safe Drivers,” using a theme related to the school’s Pirate mascot, said 18-year-old senior and NHS president Raquel Soat. It focuses on texting and driving, driving in bad weather and seat belt use.
“We’ve tried to share this with the middle school, elementary school and whole community,” Soat said. “We want to make sure that overall we have a safe community. We love our community and no one wants to see anyone in it hurt, especially in a car accident.”
Trooper Dan Bowman, community service trooper from Jackson’s Michigan State Police post, has assisted the schools’ campaigns by talking to students and bringing in simulators that mimic impaired and distracted driving that they can try out. He applauds the schools that are participating in the program.
“There’s nothing worse than going to a house to tell parents that something bad has happened to their child,” Bowman said. “Moms immediately start sobbing when they see the trooper at the front door, and that’s what we’re trying to avoid here.”
The schools are compiling results from their months of getting their messages out. Their accomplishments will be presented to sponsor representatives who will pick the best programs and award the winners with a driving clinic with professional driving instructors, courtesy of Ford.
Other counties that qualify for the Strive For A Safer Drive project are Genesee, Ingham, Kalamazoo, Kent, Livingston, Macomb, Oakland, Ottawa, Washtenaw and Wayne.
