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The Record-Journal Online
Alabama Schools to
Celebrate International
Walk to School Day


MONTGOMERY – More than sixty
schools in Alabama will join schools
from around the world to celebrate
International Walk to School Day on
Wednesday, Oct. 3.

Transportation Director John Cooper
and Kay Batey, Federal Highway
Administration Alabama Assistant
Division Administrator, will walk with
students from Montgomery’s
Chisholm Elementary School
Wednesday as part of Alabama’s
Safe Routes to School program.

Kids in grades K-8, parents, teachers
and community leaders walk and bike
to and from school to promote
pedestrian and bicycle safety and the
health benefits of exercising.
Statewide participation at individual
schools will occur from 7-9 a.m. Oct.
3 and throughout the month.

Events include organized walks,
Walking School Buses, special bike
rides, interactive simulated computer
games, parades and other local
projects. A list of participating
schools, as of press time, is
attached. Additional schools may be
added to the list.

Walk to School events demonstrate
the need to make walking and biking
to school safer and raise awareness
of the benefits of participation.
Benefits include increasing the
physical activity of children, fighting
childhood obesity, reducing traffic
congestion and fuel consumption,
and making communities more
pedestrian friendly.

In the U.S., International Walk to
School Day is expected to be
celebrated at more than 3,500
events at participating schools.
Walkers from the U.S. will join
children and adults in 40 countries
around the world.

In Alabama, Walk to School
Day/Month is supported by the
Alabama Departments of
Transportation, Education, and
Public Health. Please visit www.
walktoschool.org for further
information.
    
ALDOT’s mission is to provide a safe,
efficient, environmentally and
economically sound transportation
network across Alabama. For
additional information, visit www.dot.
state.al.us
SADD Student of the Year Op-Ed
Driving the Future: New
Legislation Gives Teens a
Voice in Traffic Safety
Programming

I am a teenager. I stay up too late; I
wake up too late. I get emotional. I don’t
want my parents circling me like hawks,
and I definitely don’t want them to try to
tell me what to do, especially behind the
wheel. However, now that students are
falling back into the school routine, it’s
time for everyone to pay attention to
teen safety on the road.

Daily, young people get behind the
wheel to go to class, work or
extracurricular activities, but if you’re a
teen driver like me, your odds on the
road aren’t good. Young drivers are the
most dangerous category of driver, to
themselves and to everyone else.
According to the CDC website,
individuals ages 15-24 represent only
14 percent of the U.S. population, but
they account for almost 30 percent of
the total costs of motor vehicle injuries
— leaving them highly
overrepresented. In addition, per mile
driven, young drivers ages 16-19 are
four times more likely than “more
experienced” drivers to get in a car
crash, and male drivers and
passengers ages 15-19 are twice as
likely to die in a car crash as females.

The disproportionate number of teen
crashes is the result of several key
factors. One of the central reasons is
the obvious — lack of experience.
Teens are more likely to underestimate
risky situations and to be unable to
recognize hazardous ones. They are
also more likely to drive closer to the
vehicle in front of them, reducing their
time to react if necessary. Also,
because the judgment center of their
brains is still developing, teens are
more susceptible to the influences of
peer pressure and emotion. The
likelihood of fatal teen crashes
increases as teens add more
passengers to their vehicles, which they
are more likely to do because they are
social animals. Unfortunately, those
teen passengers and drivers are also
more likely not to be wearing their
seatbelts. In 2009, the majority (56
percent) of young people 16 to 20
years old involved in fatal crashes were
unbuckled.

Yet despite overwhelming evidence that
teen drivers and teen driver safety
merit the nation’s attention, prior to this
year, federal highway safety legislation
barely mentioned teens and the federal
agency in charge of promoting safe
driving behavior on the highways,
NHTSA, had spent only 0.2% of its
2010 budget on this high-risk category.

While teen drivers have previously
been an overlooked group of motor
vehicle operators, the recent passage
of the highway bill, the Moving Ahead
for Progress in the 21st Century Act or
MAP-21, marked a change in the trend,
seriously addressing teen drivers for
the first time in legislation. MAP-21
establishes funding for distracted
driving, an area that affects teens more
than others; and also provides
incentives for progressive Graduated
Driver’s License programs. Most
important to me, MAP-21 encourages
states to include a peer-to-peer
component in any teen traffic safety
program they adopt, acknowledging
that teens must be part of the solution
for an issue that so directly affects them.

Peer-to-peer efforts, like those
provided for in the MAP-21 legislation,
are key to the success of any attempt
to keep teens safe, as they encourage
teens to take an active part in reaching
out and touching one another in ways
that teens know are effective. My
friends and I are not oblivious to the
risks we face when behind the wheel,
and we are not passive in the fight for
safer roads. After all, we’re the ones
primarily at risk.  Thousands of
students and many student
organizations across the nation,
including SADD, are engaged in
creating positive change for our
generation — working to improve our
safety on the road and the safety of
everyone else as well. I am grateful that
teens themselves are now being
recognized as a key part of something
as important as traffic safety policy.

I am a teenager. I have things to say. I
have thoughts, and ideas, and
influence. And I am not alone. I, along
with all of my peers, have the power to
redefine our generation’s safety on the
road. We are enthusiastic. We are
passionate. And we are leading the way
for positive and meaningful change.

Carrie Louise Sandstrom
SADD National Student of the Year
carrie.sandstrom@my.und.edu
Monthly
Emergency
Siren Testing
in Livingston


The University of West
Alabama and the City of
Livingston perform a
monthly test of the
emergency outdoor sirens
around the UWA campus.
Tests are scheduled for the
first Wednesday of each
month (weather permitting)
at 9 a.m., beginning
October 3. The siren will be
audible throughout the city,
but this is only a test.

Siren alerts sounded at
other times should be
perceived as emergency
alerts.

For more information,
contact UWA’s Office of
Emergency Preparedness
at 205-652-5563.