Celebrating teen driving safety at the Illinois State Fair

Like hundreds of thousands of other Illinois households, the LaHood family circles the middle of August on our calendar each year for the Illinois State Fair.

From livestock, grains, and fruit to textiles, cooking, and other handiwork, the Illinois State Fair showcases the best our state has to offer. It's a pleasure to walk around the halls, stalls and booths to see what folks have proudly displayed. For farmers, artisans, and old friends, the state fair offers Illinoisans a way of saying "This is what we've been up to for the past year."

And I was happy to let fairgoers know what we've been up to for the past year in our fight against distracted driving. So, I joined Governor Pat Quinn, Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, Illinois DOT Secretary Gary Hannig, and State Police Acting Director Jonathan Monken at the kickoff celebration of Illinois' kickoff celebration of Operation Teen Safe Driving.

Operation Teen Safe Driving encourages the creativity of Illinois teens to develop programs to reduce fatalities and injuries due to traffic crashes among their peers. They've got a lot to be proud of as they have helped reduce teen fatalities in Illinois by half since 2006.

In 2008, teens formed the largest proportion of distracted drivers in fatal crashes. Texting and talking on cell phones may feel like second nature to a tech-savvy generation, but the truth is, no one can talk or text while driving safely. I commend these young leaders and Operation Teen Safe Driving for helping to keep teens drivers safe.

There has been no shortage of distracted driving news from the Obama Administration this past year:

• President Obama issued an Executive Order banning texting behind the wheel for government employees on the job.
• DOT banned texting while driving for commercial truck and bus drivers.
• We provided state legislatures with sample legislation for banning texting while driving, and 30 states have now passed anti-distracted driving laws.
• We're holding our second Distracted Driving Summit this September to share new data and best practices.

Look, you see it every day: Drivers swerving in their lanes, stopping at green lights, running red ones, or narrowly missing a pedestrian because they have their eyes and minds on their phones and not on the road. Yet people consistently think they can text or talk on their cell phones while driving safely.

But you can't; you just can't.

So my message to the young people of Operation Teen Safe Driving was simple: 

Your safety may boil down to that one decision--the decision you make to pay attention or not, to hang up and drive or not, or whether a text message is worth a trip to jail, the hospital, or worse.

Believe me, no message is worth the consequences of this deadly behavior.

Yes, from prize pigs to popcorn, my home state of has a lot to celebrate at this year's Illinois State Fair. And engaging teen drivers and empowering them to make the right choices behind the wheel tops that list.

Comments

[Kyle Pagach]

To promote safe driving and help us raise money for a feature length film that exposes the risks of distracted driving amongst teens, please support our WEAR AT-SHIRT...SAVE A LIFE! campaign.

www.interstate1clothing.com

100% tax deductible donation. For information on how you can sponsor a joint fundraiser using these shirts, contact Kyle @ 323-855-7029

[happyday]

I commend these young leaders and Operation Teen Safe Driving for helping to keep teens drivers safe. www.salejacket.com
,which sell the new arrival winter jacket,the price of sale jacket is much cheaper than the entity store,but the quality of cotton jacket is the same as the entity store. The most important is ,the staff of online store,
www.salejacket.com
,can offer the better service for you .

[Michael E. Bailey]

Talking on a cell phone and/or texting while driving is a major public health problem and programs like this one in Illinois will be critical to addressing it. New laws and enforcement and technology improvements are also very important. But public education of the problem and keeping it before the public all the time will play a critical role in changing behavior and so making our roads safer for everyone. Best wishes, Michael E. Bailey.

[Pop Up Canopy]

Wonderful! Glad this subject has raised the concern of people.. Its a serious issue out here in Ca, as I'm sure it is in many other states..Too many distractions these days.. It's almost like driving is now the distraction for people who are texting! Crazy..

[Dean Lindsay]

Teens can really make THE positive difference in safe driving programs. Drinking, texting, talking on phone all are getting out of hand. I have a teen daughter and it is scary!!! As the song says, "I believe that children are the future, teach them well and let them lead the way." Thanks for the post!

[P. Craven]

I was pleased to see this interesting and recent post about safe teen driving. Texting and driving in particular is a destructive and unnecessary practice that puts lives at risk. It's important that we are able to connect with our teens in order to show them just how dangerous texting and driving is. I am including a link to a driving school with facilities in Illinois that I believe can communicate with inexperienced, impressionable teen drivers like few other driver training outfits:

http://www.topdriver.com

If you go through some of the videos, I think you'll see that these folks are better equipped to teach your teen than the average driving instructor.

[driving lessons solihull]

Safe teen driving should really be given an importance for people because nowadays, there are so many car accidents and teens are included in this. Also, they should be aware of how destructive texting and calling is when they're driving. They should also be aware of the many rules when driving.

[Supra Shoes]

Oh, this is exciting! Good luck to see your blog of all the applicants, thank you share the information.

[Bradford Fleming - Car Care Tips]

This is a good campaign to lessen the risk of accidents caused by texting while driving.

[Florida Drug And Alcohol Test Course]

This is really good approach of educating teens about driving safety.It probably will reduce the risk of accidents.

[Movers]

Talking on a cell phone and/or texting while driving is a major public health problem. Will send this link to my son and daughters NOW !