School Zone Safety: Remind Teens to Slow Down

The return to school means busy school zones, school buses on the roads, an increase in pedestrians and bicyclists and lots of people in a hurry to get to school and work! It's so important to remind new drivers — and all drivers — to be careful in and around school zones. Check out the National Safety Council’s tips on how to safely share the road.

National Teen Driver Safety Week Kits

National Teen Driver Safety Week is October 21-27. Sign up for a free kit to celebrate and raise awareness about safe driving. Crossroads is partnering with State Farm and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to celebrate National Teen Driver Safety Week. The focus of this year’s campaign is seat belt use. The goals are to educate teens about the importance of buckling their seat belts every time they are in a vehicle, both as the driver and as a passenger, and to empower them to speak up when someone is not wearing a seat belt.  Participating schools will receive a free kit of materials to use for the week that includes: messages to be read over morning announcements or displayed on announcement boards throughout the week posters and seat belt fact sheets a reusable National Teen Driver Safety Week banner (for those schools that do not already have one) lanyards and other handouts. Crossroads has limited quantities of these free kits that are available on a first-come, first-served basis. If you are interested in receiving materials, sign up below or contact  Carissa Hoium , Motor Vehicle Safety Coordinator, no later than Friday, September 28.

Sign up here

Contests and funding opportunities

Reminder: school Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs) can apply for funding for a traffic safety collaborative project through Crossroads! Find out more about past projects and how to apply on the website   (under CTSO Projects). Schools, please consider a CTSO Collaborative project this year!

Seat Belts Save: A national campaign aimed at educating teens about the importance of seat belts and increasing their use. Participating schools can win one of three $1,500 prizes. Registration for the Fall 2018 challenge opened September 1, 2018. Learn more and sign up here. The Pump It Up Campaign by Tread Wisely and DoSomething.org: This campaign promotes tire safety and participants have the chance to win a $3,000 scholarship. Learn more and sign up here.

Professional Opportunities

As we enter new school and grant years, there are several opportunities to engage with other professionals around the issue of teen driver safety: Distracted Driving Work Group. At the Governor’s Conference in August we held an initial meeting to discuss how we will address the objectives in the State Strategic Highway Safety Plan. The group will meet quarterly. If you would be interested in participating please email us. Teen Driving Safety Collaborative. Crossroads is starting a new teen driving safety community at the state level, comprised of people from a variety of agencies and groups. We will be working to develop this group’s membership and to define goals, objectives and a meeting schedule. We invite you to attend the first phone meeting at 9:30 a.m. November 27. Please use the following number to access the call: 855-263-0251 followed by 74711. Teen Driver Safety Virtual Conference. Throughout the day on December 6, we will offer local and national webinars and conference calls on a variety of teen driver safety issues including distracted driving, new driver risks, school and community programs, and much more. Save the date, and watch for additional information about these free sessions through our website, newsletter and email.

Wisconsin Governor's Conference on Highway Safety

Wisconsin’s 44 th Annual Governor’s Conference on Highway Safety was held in August in Lake Geneva. Crossroads was honored to participate in both the child passenger safety and teen driver safety elements of this conference. We participated in a car seat check event, held the initial meeting of the statewide distracted driving work group, and participated in a car seat presentation from Safe Kids Worldwide. This presentation took a look at car seats throughout the years, so our team dressed up in clothing from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s and today. Finally, we  participated in a panel session titled “Life Cycle of a Driver” that discussed the stages and regulations that all drivers go through. We want to thank the Wisconsin Department of Transportation for having us and thank all of our partners we connected with at the conference!

Coming soon: new teen driving videos

Crossroads, in partnership with Wisconsin Department of Transportation and State Farm, has produced a series of new teen driver education videos that are informative, impactful and engaging. We can't wait to share them with you. Watch for the roll out soon.

HOW CAN WE HELP?

For more information about Crossroads Teen Driving, contact Deena Liska, teen driving coordinator, at (414) 231-4893 or email  crossroadsteendriving@chw.org .

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