Ford Driving Skills for Life Program Manager Jim Graham speaks last Friday at a teen driving safety event in front of the Dearborn police station as Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad (to his right) looks on along with another officer. PHOTOS: Nick Meyer/TAAN

DEARBORN – Local officials from the city’s police
department, schools, and other organizations came together on Friday, May 27
for a press conference to discuss the importance of driving safety among teens
as part of the police’s second annual SMART (Safe, Mature, and Responsible
Teen) campaign.

The campaign formally began last year after officials from
the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee contacted the police department
and officials from Ford to partner on the initiative.

A silver Pontiac Grand Am totaled in an accident has been
placed in front of the station along with a  SMART banner as a reminder of the importance of practicing
safe driving habits. Safe driving ambassadors also related personal stories of
accidents and the importance of practicing safe habits.

According to Dearborn Police Chief Ron Haddad, auto crashes
are the leading cause of death for people age 15-20, and the summer months lead
to more teen driving and more potential for accidents. Teen drivers also are
involved in 20 percent of all auto accident deaths. The goal of SMART is to
raise awareness of the importance of responsible driving among teens and young
people.

According to Jim Graham, a partner and the manager of Ford’s
Driving Skills for Life program, which works as a part of SMART for free
through the Ford Fund Foundation, lack of experience is the number-one issue in
teen accidents.

“We have found that instruction is limited and most
schools only teach basic driving skills,” he said. “Not many places
teach things like how to control a car when you start to skid, avoiding
speeding, how to keep spacing between other cars and those types of
things.”

Graham added that more than 30 states including Michigan
have banned texting while driving according to AAA. Lack of concentration on the
road can be disastrous as many have pointed out. Graham said many teenagers are
not aware that their cars may veer towards where they’re looking as they drive.

The SMART program has helped to address the educational
needs of local students through a multifaceted program that includes a
semi-truck full of accident-damaged cars to show to kids taken directly to
schools, hands-on safety training, contests for creating songs about distracted
driving, speeches from professional drivers and more.

The website www.drivingskillsforlife.com has also been
launched with resources and interactive tips and lessons for parents,
students  and educators. The AAA
organization of Michigan also recently launched its own site with tips and
other resources for teen drivers, which can be found at
www.teendriving.aaa.com.

Haddad noted that Dearborn ordinances prohibit cell phone
use during driving and that his department plans to enforce the laws this
summer as much as possible. Haddad said cell phone distraction is the biggest
cause of accidents for young drivers and that the city has seen an outbreak of
rear-end collisions caused in large part by those who were distracted by cell
phones. Dearborn also plans to strongly enforce the “Click it or
Ticket” program in order to ensure that drivers are wearing seat belts in
accordance with local laws.

Travis Reece, a spokesman with the Mothers Against Drunk
Driving (MADD) organization, arrived and spoke last. He said that he was late
because he was helping a family in Jackson cope with the loss of their son who
had been killed by a “good friend.”

Reece said MADD has visited numerous schools in the state to
warn them of the dangers of drunk driving, especially during prom season and
the summer months.

“This is an epidemic that is 100 percent curable, and
you stop it by not drinking and driving,” Reece said. “I live and see
it every day, these officers here see it every day, (and) it’s very
unfortunate.”

Dearborn Public Schools Superintendent Brian Whiston also
spoke about the dangers of distracted driving.

“Our message to students is to be safe drivers and to
pay attention to the road because it’s easy to distracted,” he said.
“It’s very important to us that you come home safely.”

“The key message is that all of you are very important;
be patient and make sure you are paying attention to the road.”