In honor of Valentine’s Day, a high school teen is asking his peers to take a pledge against distracted driving for that special someone.
Bryan Epstein, a current senior at Freehold Township High School, joined the Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) club during his freshman year. Becoming more passionate about the cause, Epstein joined two national clubs that promote driving safety during his high school career. Now as a senior, Epstein has combined the SADD club’s efforts with Allstate to bring the Allstate 'X the Txt' program to his home High School.
According to the ‘X the Text’ Facebook page, “Allstate is raising awareness of the dangers of texting while driving. To date, more than 125,000 people have made the pledge not to text and drive.”
From 10:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. today, Epstein and his club will be in the Freehold Township High School cafeteria urging students to sign up and add their thumb print to a pledge banner as a symbol of their promise not use their cell phones while driving.
“Everyone has had a great enthusiasm for the event,” explained Epstein. “Students have realized how important it is and the significance behind taking the pledge not only for their safety but for the safety of their passengers as well.”
The 120-member club has been promoting the event through the school’s announcements and is expecting a large number of students to take the pledge for their special someone today.
kimberly
9:10 am on Tuesday, February 14, 2012
As a fths teacher, I'm very proud of this article!!!! We have great students :-))
Mary
10:28 am on Tuesday, February 14, 2012
AWESOME!!! I am happy to see that our young adults are helping each other --- Way To Go Freehold Township.
Mary P
PATRICIA KLINGER
11:38 am on Tuesday, February 14, 2012
What a wonderful idea! Perhaps the students should get their parents to sign up also. It seems when I am out driving around town I see a lot of moms with the phone in their hands while driving. Set the example parents!!!!! Way to go FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP.
Erik Wood
2:31 pm on Tuesday, February 14, 2012
I think this effort will help these young drivers get the message. It has to start with the end user, the driver...deciding not to partake in distracted driving and this will help drive that message home.
I also decided to do something about teen (and adult) distracted driving after my three year old daughter was nearly run down right in front of me by a texting driver. Instead of a shackle that locks down phones and alienates the user (especially teens) I built a tool for teens and their parents called OTTER that is a simple, GPS based, texting auto reply app for smartphones. It also silences call ringtones while driving unless you have a bluetooth enabled. I think if we can empower the individual then change will come to our highways now and not just our laws.
Erik Wood, owner
OTTER LLC
OTTER app