Congratulations to the fall 2020 Contest Winners:
Don't Drop The Ball
Andres M
No Distraction is Worth Risking Your Life
Mayumi D
Create Real Impact- Como Prevenir Manejar con Distracciones
Fiorella L
Informacion Para Padres De Conductores Adolecentes
Belen T
Choose Today to Have a Tomorrow
Gaby G
It’s the mindset
Alec B
Some Things Change
Jessie M
A reverse poem of the preventable killer of teens: distracted driving
Erika A
Texts, posts, and emails are worth my life while driving.
You’ll never hear me say
Seatbelts are important.
I also believe
It’s okay to answer a text as long as I look at the road often.
It’s ridiculous to think
I can miss my favorite celebrity’s Instagram Live one time
And that I should wait to drink my bubble tea until I get home
I know
I don’t have a higher risk of dying if I drive with my phone in one hand as long as the other is on the wheel.
So, it’s naive to say
Multitasking is impossible.
I won’t be endangering others if I check Twitter quickly
And it’s untrue when I say
Driving distracted kills 11 teens every day.
Everybody should know that
There’s harm in waiting to do your makeup.
Nobody could convince me that
It’s a choice to drive distracted.
JUST DRIVE! (it's free!)
Guohang(Henry) Z
Vale la pena?
Alejandra B
I Don't
Maxwell R
Anything can happen in a matter of a second
Annaka T
Sobbing. Sobbing. Sobbing. This is not a dream, I repeated in my head. “I wish you were still here” I mumbled to my cousin’s tombstone; as I place her favorite bag of chips down next to her flowers.I help spell her name with candles in the dirt for her birthday. September 2nd, 2011. In a matter of seconds a cloud covers a nice, warm, shiny sun with dark rainy clouds; then you find yourself stuck in a nightmare you can’t wake up from. You open your eyes to your mom panicking with pain in her eyes, begging for it all to be some kind of joke and it can’t be true. As a News channel begins to talk about the evening reports on highways, they describe the incident of a vehicle overturned in a center median… Everyone hysterically crying not able to understand why something like that could happen in a blink of an eye. “Why my niece?” “Why my daughter?” “Why my sister?” “Why my granddaughter?” everyone continues to question in disbelief as it becomes more real. “Everything will be okay. It will all get better” people say to me, as they pay their respects at her funeral. Nothing got better because waking up and not having your cousin at your house everyday bonding with you doesn’t just get easy overnight, weeks, months, even years. Losing someone to a crash does not get easy. It gets harder than ever. Having to realize you don’t get to hug, talk, nor celebrate with the person you grew up with and was like a big sister will NEVER be okay. To realize she will never get the life she wanted to live all because poor choices were made. Just as you’re about to take your eyes and concentration off the road think of the people you have in the car. As you take your hands off the wheel, think of the consequences. Think of the people in your car. Think of families you could hurt. Think of you taking another person’s life. Could you really forgive yourself for taking the people in your car lives just because you took your concentration off the road? Think of my aunt who lost her second oldest daughter. Think of my cousins who lost their sister, who will not get the chance to meet her nieces. If you feel the need to argue and take your focus off the road pull over. Look for the next gas station and talk there. Wait till you get home to talk about the mistake that was made. Think of my cousin’s children and the only way they get to meet their aunt is from memories that are being told or pictures/videos that were taken. Think of my aunt, cousins, and their kids that are going to have to celebrate her birthday at a cemetery instead of at a family member’s house. Think of my cousin not able to have a family of her own all because the driver was not paying attention to the road. I don’t mean to sound demanding but when talking about losing a family member to a crash then I am going to be demanding. Pay attention to the road and put all of your focus into driving. I’m demanding that you talk later. Maybe then, the death on September 2nd, 2011, would’ve never happened and Itzayana Chaidez would still be here and there would be no tombstone with her name on it.