DEARBORN — It seems every year, right before summer, we hear of a tragedy involving a high school student who lost his life in a car accident. Data suggests that accidents involving high school students tend to surge around graduation and prom, when they are caught up with their end-of-the-school-year festivities, and may make some irrational decisions behind the wheel. 

But this year, the Dearborn Police Department is taking some pro-active measures to alert students and residents about the dangers of reckless driving, especially amongst teenagers. 

For weeks now, the department has been displaying a wrecked Ford Escort right in front of the police station at 16099 Michigan Ave. Near it, a sign that emphasises seat belt enforcement, is also visible for drivers who notice the eye-popping display. 

In previous years, initiatives on safe driving tended to mostly focus on drinking and driving. But in this day and age, the focusbseems to have shifted over to distracted driving. With the increase of social media and smart phone use in recent years, distracted driving, involving drivers who may be texting, talking on their cell phone, or engaging in other forms of activities that may distract their eyes off the road for even a split second, has become just as big of an obstacle. 

The latest statistics show, each day in the United States, more than nine people are killed, and more than 1,060 people are injured, in crashes that are reported to involve a distracted driver. These figures hit an all-time high at the same time text messaging hit an all-time high, around 2011. Research shows two years later, that texting is slightly down in the U.S., but it’s not apparent if that will decrease the amount of distracted driving collisions. Drivers may very well be even more distracted with other applications on smart phone devices, such as Twitter and Instagram. 

Currently displayed in front of the Dearborn Police Department is a wrecked Ford Escort, to alert drivers of the dangers of distracted driving.

On Friday of last week, the Dearborn Police Department held a press conference outside of their station, where they discussed the dangers of distracted driving, as well as drunk driving, in an effort to educate the youth before they are out of school. Among the speakers at the event included Dearborn High School Assistant Principal Osama Baydoun, Vice President for EEI Global/Bridgestone Tire  Braden Graham, Jim Graham from Ford Motor Company, Angel Harris from Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and students from Edsel Ford, Fordson, and Dearborn High School.

Fordson Student Jad Elharake, 17, a Junior, took the podium to discuss some bad habits that have formed with his fellow peers in the last several years, involving the dependency they seem to have on cell phone use. Elharake says he became interested in the distracted driving initiative after one of his close friends had gotten into a car accident near Fordson High School, while the driver of an oncoming vehicle had ran a red light while texting and driving.

“Cell phone use is an obsessive compulsive disorder with high school students. So many friends of mine can’t stay away from their phones. They are always using it while they are driving, answering both their texts and phone calls, and that can wait. I  am not involved in any social media because I know if was, I would probably get addicted,” Elharake told The Arab American News.

Elharake says it’s disappointing that the only way teenagers seem to learn their lesson is when they become involved in a car accident themselves. He says he’s been taking initiative with Dearborn Public Schools about the possibility of putting up signs that warn drivers to not be distracted while driving. Catchy slogans include “One call can wreck it all,”  and “Stop the texts, stop the wrecks.”

Some suggestions he gives to his peers includes placing the cell phone as far away as possible from the driver, so they’re unable to respond when they get text messages and social media alerts. Elharake says he even limits the amount of time he spends talking on the phone while driving, telling his callers that he will return their phone call once he is parked. He even suggests that if there is a passenger with the driver, then the passenger could do the responding and texting for the driver, as long as the driver remains focused. 

“I also give some blames to the parents, because they may be influencing their children without even knowing it. They are showing kids at a young age that it’s okay to be texting and driving, and that plays a huge role on the kids,” Elharake added. 

While texting and driving may be the biggest factor in distracted driving accidents, many students at Dearborn’s three high schools like to engage in reckless driving traditions in order to celebrate the end of the school year. It involves packing groups of students into  a number of vehicles, and speeding down main roads. Most of the time, they fail to wear seat belts, and engage in risky behaviour  that includes placing their body above the sunroof, or passenger and back seat windows. The Dearborn Police Department says they are buckling down on this type of erratic driving, and could lead to a suspended license if drivers are caught engaging in such activity.

Fordson student Jad Elharake speaks to the community during a safety driving press conference at the Dearborn Police Department.

Assistant Principal Osama Baydoun of Dearborn High School took the podium to share some horrifying memories with the crowd involving his time at Fordson High School a few years ago, when he was a faculty member. Baydoun said one of his most devastating moments of his career involved getting word that two Fordson students had been killed in reckless driving accidents. Deaths like this don’t only make an impact on family members, but it effects the entire community.

Baydoun now says he has taken his own initiatives at Dearborn High, and is not shy to pull students over if he sees them driving recklessly near school property before or after school. Within a two week period, he’s already pulled over at least a half dozen students who were caught engaging in reckless driving.

Jim Graham of Ford Motors, who heads the company’s Driving Skills for Life program, says Ford has been engaged in an initiative with local students involving safe driving as well. Students were taken to a nearby Ford Motors test track and were taught about the dangers of distracted driving. Edsel Ford students also used a $2,000 grant from Ford Motors co. to survey their schoolmates about their driving habits, make a display with statistics, hold an assembly, and make videos and signs pledging not to text and drive.

But with all the emphasis on distracted driving, the Dearborn Police Department also made sure to not overlook the dangers of drinking and driving. 

Angel Harris from Mothers Against Drunk Driving took the podium to alert the community about the continued dangers of drinking and driving. Breaking it down to just statistics on teens alone, she says over 6,000 teens die yearly on the roads, and 2,000 of them are from drinking and driving. She believes those numbers could even be worse if the legal drinking age was decreased from 21 to 18.

Braden Graham, vice president for EEI Global/Bridgestone Tire, says local teens will have an opportunity to engage in a safety driving initiative video contest, with the winners receiving scholarships. The first place winner’s video will also be played in Times Square. Local teens can register for the contest at //teensdrivesmarttour.com/.