Jeannette students join effort to educate on dangers of distracted driving
Drivers entering the Jeannette Junior/Senior High School grounds will get some messages about how to stay safe behind the wheel.
A group of students on Monday put up yard signs encouraging drivers to slow down, wear their seat belts and never drive impaired. Police Chief Derek Manley said distracted driving and not wearing seat belts are the top two issues he’s seen with teen drivers.
“You have a lower number that are actually driving violations,” he said. “The higher number is definitely the seat belts and distracted driving.”
PennDOT District 12, the Highway Safety Network and State Farm collaborated on the messages for the yard signs after a discussion in Jeannette this year identified ways to get reminders to motorists. Highway Safety Network community traffic safety project coordinator Jaci Brice said the signs likely will remain outside the school this week, which is Teen Driver Safety Week, and next. The district will keep the signs and can use them for reminders around events such as prom.
About 35 to 40 students drive to school, said Principal Vanessa White.
Between 2021 and 2023, Pennsylvania had an average of about 98,000 licensed drivers annually ages 16 and 17, according to PennDOT statistics. In Westmoreland County, there were an average of 508 crashes annually from 2019 to 2023 involving drivers 20 and younger, PennDOT District 12 safety press officer Emily Swecker said.
Distracted driving played a role in 284 of the total number of crashes — 2,539 — and a driver’s inexperience was a factor in 212 crashes, she said. Seventeen crashes were fatal.
Between 2019 and 2023, there were 27 crashes involving young drivers in Jeannette, Swecker said.
“Teen drivers do have an elevated crash risk, so that’s why we like to do everything that we can to get to them early just to promote that conversation … around safe driving and those safe driving behaviors,” she said. “It’s definitely an important message for all drivers. It’s not just students that are coming in here … but adults can, of course, learn from these signs as well.”
Manley said penalties for infractions such as distracted driving or driving without a seat belt can range from a verbal warning to a traffic citation.
Renatta Signorini is a TribLive reporter covering breaking news, crime, courts and Jeannette. She has been working at the Trib since 2005. She can be reached at rsignorini@triblive.com.
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