By Ziya Patel
Every day, 28 people in America die as a result of drunk driving crashes. These fatal crashes occur because people get behind a wheel while they are intoxicated or under the influence of drugs. High school teenagers account for a majority of drinking and driving accidents. That is why the Save a Life Tour has been presented to hundreds of students in high schools, as well as colleges and universities. This program has teamed up with the United States Armed Forces and educates students on the dangers of alcoholism and the effect it has when you are driving in an effort to reduce the number of unsafe driving incidents.
The Safe a Life Tour came to juniors and seniors at Mineola High School on March 13, bringing all sorts of equipment to grab students’ attention and engage them on the dangers of drinking and driving.
As the program began, students were shown a video of accident scenes that reveal perspectives from different families who lost a loved one to alcoholism. Students were exposed to how texting and driving can impact their lives along with alcoholism. The video also showed what car crashes really looked like which opened up eyes for students as they were horrified and emotional at what they saw.
Senior Andrew Ariza said, “The video was frightening, but these things happen in real life so it got me feeling like I should never do something like texting and driving or drinking and driving when the time comes. This video made me realize that texting and driving is just as dangerous as drinking and driving.”
The 20-30 minute video shown by Save a Life Tour touched many students by displaying the effects of the dangers of driving distractions. After the video finished, the company members spoke to students about what Save a Life Tour is, along with the dangers of unsafe driving shown by the video.
“I thought the presentation was very informative and significant for adolescent adults since it’s their chance to be educated on the dangers of being distracted while driving,” said Matteo Itri, a high school senior. “I felt that the Save a Life Tour will potentially save the lives of many, many young adults due to its wonderful information and how powerful their message was.”
The Save a Life Tour’s purpose is to lessen the number of fatal crashes due to unsafe driving and hopefully one day make it come to a stop altogether.
“I thought the assembly was really interesting and very important to show us especially since we are learning how to drive,” said junior Maya Narvekar. “I hope that it makes a difference for people who drive and leads them to making better choices.”
The presentation not only showed a video, but students got to experience the hands on portion of the presentation. Students got to use stimulators, which demonstrated the dangers of unsafe driving. These stimulators included the dangers of texting and driving, which made you answer every text and the dangers of drinking that showed how if you can’t drive when you’re sober, you can’t do it when you’re drunk either. These stimulators helped students realize that these aren’t just video games, but very similar to real life consequences.
—Ziya Patel is a student at Mineola High School
