140 Teens Gather for the First Teen Driver Safety Summit

By Heidi Flansberg, Summit Participant
Senior, Carson High School, Carson City, Nevada

From October 14-16, 2007, 140 teen leaders representing all 50 states met in Washington, D.C., for the Teen Driver Safety Summit. Over three days, we addressed issues relating to the number-one killer of teens — car crashes. The event coincided with the congressionally sanctioned National Teen Driver Safety Week.

Meeting right down the street from the Capitol in the American Red Cross Building reminded us just how significant it was to be in the nation’s capital, where so many important decisions are made. We were able to share safe-driving projects we’ve tried in the past, and many participants left with new ideas to implement in their communities. Receiving first-hand descriptions of projects and discussing what did and did not work gave us a lot of ideas for projects we could do in our own schools — ways we could help students understand that driving may be fun, but it is a responsibility not a right. 

Much of the key decision making happened when we split into eight groups to discuss four aspects of driver safety: distracted driving, impaired driving, seat belt use, and graduated drivers licenses. Each of the eight discussion groups was led by a member of the State Farm Youth Advisory Board — a group of college students with backgrounds in community service and leadership. The ideas were then integrated into four main points:

• End cell phone use while driving (texting or talking).
• Encourage seatbelt use.
• Work with individual states to institute and improve graduated drivers license programs.
• Raise awareness around the life-threatening dangers of intoxicated driving.

Some of us had already participated in Project Ignition — NYLC and State Farm’s program to promote safe teen driving through service-learning — so this summit felt somewhat like a reunion. As a member of two top 10 Project Ignition teams, I was extremely honored to come to this national summit, which was covered in major periodicals, including Time, Newsweek, and USA Today. I got to share my ideas and learn from others, so I can make my community safer for everyone.  This summit has inspired me to put together a statewide conference about teen driver safety awareness.