National Youth Traffic Safety Month

Young People Making a Difference
Join them for National Youth Traffic Safety Month in May.

The National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) along with their partners sponsor National Youth Traffic Safety Month each May. Here are ways that you can participate:

• Sign the NYTSM Drive Safe Pledge-Click Here
• Follow the "Act Out Loud" Blog Here
• Visit www.NOYS.org for more information
• Kick off your month by observing Keep Kids Alive Drive 25 Day on May 1st.
• CREATE A SAFE-DRIVING CULTURE IN YOUR HIGH SCHOOL(S) (Click here to learn how)
• Visit www.DrivingSkillsForLife.com
• Support your local Safe Routes to Schools Initiatives through a KEEP KIDS ALIVE DRIVE 25® SCHOOL FUNDRAISER (Click here). Find out more about your local Safe Routes opportunities at State SRTS Contacts.
• Make your support official by pledging at the KKAD25 Facebook Cause Page
• Learn about the increasing use of inhalants as a factor in teen crashes at Inhalant.org – With thanks to the work of The Alliance for Consumer Education.

Visit these links reminding us of how those of every age committed to traffic safety make a difference:

• From the Miami Herald - Hialeah Gardens students push for safer city intersection
• Photos from the Keep Kids Alive 5K in Colts Neck, NJ (Thanks to the Graeme Preston Foundation who did a tremendous job supporting the race/fundraiser to initiate KEEP KIDS ALIVE DRIVE 25® in Monmouth County)
• From Salem, Oregon - The message is clear: 'Slow Down'

Facts to Think About!

• 37,000 sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandparents, and friends died on roadways in the U.S. in 2008. Consider the State Capitols that would vanish if this many people (or fewer) died locally:
  Juneau, Alaska (31,118), Dover, Delaware (32,135),

Frankfort, Kentucky (27,741), Augusta, Maine (18,560), Annapolis, Maryland (36,217), Helena, Montana (25,780), Pierre, South Dakota (13,876),
Montpelier, Vermont (8,035)

• At age 16, it’s safe to say we have only half a brain! That’s according to a 2004 Study from the National Institutes of Health in releasing a 15-year brain scan study on brain development from ages 5-20. The study highlights that brain development is only about half-complete at age 16. Also revealed is the following:
• The brain takes about 25 years to mature (for a small percentage of males, this process can take up to age 30)
  The more sophisticated capacities take the longest to develop, which directly effect driving skills. These include abilities to:
  -Expand attention and focus
  -Make sound judgments
  -Identify risks
  -Forecast consequences
  -Manage risks
  -Engage in complex visual-spatial calculations needed to drive safely (these develop in late teens and early 20s)

Consider what these realities mean when it comes to teaching young people to drive. Are we willing to devote the kind of time and energy to training safe drivers that we put into developing athletes, musicians, dancers, actors – in short, developing the gifts our children possess?
As we work to educate ourselves and others, make KEEP KIDS ALIVE DRIVE 25® an integral part of the process. Learn how at KKAD25 Start-up.

“Don’t Let the 2 Minutes You ‘Save’
Be the Last 2 Minutes of Someone’s Life.”
Adapted from David Townsend (Tia’s father)

In safety,
Tom Everson
Executive Director

KEEP KIDS ALIVE DRIVE 25® - A “For Action” Organization -501(c) (3)
12418 C Street
Omaha, NE 68144
kkad25@kkad25.org
www.KeepKidsAliveDrive25.org – Keep up with the latest at the KKAD25 Blog.

Keep Kids Alive Drive 25® and related logos and slogans (Be Aware! Drive With Care®, Check Your Speed®/No Need To Speed®, Stop! Take 3 To See®, Stop Means Stop®, Seat Belts-FASTENATING!®, and It’s Not A Race! Create Space©) are registered trademarks/copyrights of Keep Kids Alive Drive 25, P.O. Box 45563 Omaha, Nebraska, 68145. No other entities may use these or similar marks without prior permission. Call 402-334-1391 for information.