(Photos courtesy of Michigan Auto Law)
To commemorate April as Distracted Driving Awareness Month, Michigan Auto Law on Wednesday announced the winners of its 2022 Kelsey’s Law Distracted Driving Awareness Scholarship competition.
Michigan Auto Law’s annual Kelsey’s Law Distracted Driving Awareness Scholarship competition encourages Michigan high school juniors and seniors to create the best video, tweet or graphic to convince young drivers to eliminate distractions while driving.
The scholarship is named after Kelsey Raffaele of Sault Ste. Marie who died in 2010, in a cell phone-related automobile crash at the age of 17. Kelsey’s mother, Bonnie Raffaele, worked tirelessly with the Michigan Legislature to enact Kelsey’s Law in 2013, which prohibits Level 1 and 2 teen drivers from using a handheld mobile phone while driving a vehicle. Bonnie continues to advocate for stricter laws against distracted driving.
The winners of Michigan Auto Law’s 2022 Kelsey’s Law Distracted Driving Awareness Scholarship are:
• Best Overall Winner ($2000 scholarship): Anh Dang, 18, is a senior at Byron Center High School, Byron Center, Mich.
• Best Video Winner ($1500 scholarship): Ethan Singer, 17, is a junior at North Farmington High School, Farmington Hills, Mich.
• Best Graphic Winner: ($1000 scholarship): Rylie Steuer, 18, is a senior at Wayland Union High School, Wayland, Mich.
• Best Tweet Winner ($500 scholarship): Connor Wolfe, 17, is a senior at Byron Center High School, Byron Center, Mich.
To see their winning submissions, visit the 2022 Kelsey’s Law Scholarship winners page at www.michiganautolaw.com/scholarships/kelseys-law/winners.
“We are highly impressed with the quality of the scholarship winners’ contributions,” says Michigan Auto Law President and Attorney Steven Gursten. “Having young people get the word out to their peers about the dangers of texting and driving is impactful and can be very influential in persuading teen and adult drivers to refrain from dangerous driving behaviors. We know that dialing a hand-held cell phone while driving increases that driver’s crash risk 12 times and that texting while driving increases the risk 23 times. Teens are particularly vulnerable as car crashes are the number one killer of those ages 15-20.”
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Michigan Traffic Crash Facts, more than 17 percent of the drivers involved in distracted driving-related crashes in Michigan in 2020, were 20 years of age or younger. Those aged 15-19 had the largest proportion of drivers who were distracted at the time of a fatal crash.
Applications are open for the 2023 Kelsey’s Law Distracted Driving Awareness Scholarship and the deadline is March 31, 2023. To learn more about the scholarship and submission rules, visit the Michigan Auto Law Distracted Driving Scholarship page at www.michiganautolaw.com/scholarships.
