After being inspired by the movie, “A Question of Faith,” featuring a storyline about a teenager driver striking a child with her car while texting, Joy Christian School’s ESL Bible Class decided to raise awareness in their community about the impact of distracted driving. The students chose the slogan “Don’t be a fool, don’t text and drive!” for their campaign which ran April 1^st through April 5^th.

Teens Against Distracted Driving (TADD), founded by Premier Law Group attorney Jason Epstein, was thrilled to help Joy Christian School with their campaign by providing information, pledge cards, and “Pldg 2 Nt Txt N Drv” bracelets. The TADD program was started to educate drivers about the dangers of distracted driving and promote safe driving practices, especially among young drivers. “In my field of work, I see the devastating impact of accidents caused by distracted driving on the victims and their loved ones,” shared Epstein, “Educating the public is the key to stopping this preventable epidemic.”

The kick-off for Joy Christian School’s “Don’t be a fool, don’t text and drive!” campaign was on April 1^st and featured a special guest speaker, Kendal Dold, Trauma Outreach/Injury Prevention Coordinator from Banner Thunderbird Medical Center. JCS 8-12 grade students learned about the impact of distracted driving during her presentation and simulations. 

Local police joined the awareness effort by educating students and the public about the new “hands free” ordinance passed on February 7^th in Glendale banning the use of cell phones while driving with the first offense carrying a $250 fine. Many attendees were unaware of some of the restrictions, such as using a cell phone while sitting at a stoplight.

Students and the Glendale community were moved by the campaign and signed pledge cards committing to not text and drive. Premier Law Group hopes that TADD-supported awareness events like the one organized by JCS can help stop rising statistics like these:  

• 9 people in the U.S. are killed each day because of crashes involving a distracted driver.
• Driver distraction is responsible for more than 58% of teen crashes.
• 11 teens die due to texting while driving each day.

Premier Law Group wants to congratulate Joy Christian School’s ESL Bible Study Class for their successful campaign and to thank them for all their hard work and dedication!

Each year, statistics are confirming that distracted driving is a growing problem in the United States. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, fatalities and injuries caused by distracted driving are increasing with over 3,475 people killed and 391,000 injured in 2015 alone.

Washington State Law: Did You Know?

To combat this “epidemic,” Washington state passed the “Driving Under the Influence of Electronics Act” in 2017 which prohibits using electronic devices—including cellphones, tablets, laptop computers, and personal gaming systems—while behind the wheel. This includes while sitting at a stop sign or red light!

In January 2018, the distracted driving law went into effect, and law enforcement started issuing tickets to violators–$136 for the first offense and $234 for the second offense (within five years).  According to the Washington State Patrol, between January and November of 2018, state troopers stopped 21,057 drivers for suspicion of distracted driving with an electronic device and handed out 11,765 citations and 159 written warnings!

Teenagers at Risk

The statistics reflect the continuing need for education about the dangers of distracted driving. This is especially true for teen drivers. A recent six-year study of teen drivers by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety determined that 58% of teen auto accidents are caused by distracted driving. The leading causes included:

• Interacting with one or more passengers (15%).
• Using a cell phone (12%).
• Looking at something in the vehicle (10%).
• Observing something outside the vehicle (9%).
• Singing and/or moving to music (8%).
• Grooming (6%).
• Reaching for an object (6%).

How Parents Can Take Action

Parents play a critical role in preventing distracted driving. The NHTSA suggests the following:

• Talk to your teenabout the rules and responsibilities involved in driving. Share some stories and statistics related to teen drivers and distracted driving.
• Learn about Washington’s graduated drivers licensing (GDL) and distracted driving laws. This is an opportunity to educate your teen and establish driving rules such as passenger limit and the hours permitted to drive.
• Set consequences for distracted driving and consider the following options if your teen breaks your rules about distracted driving: suspending driving privileges; further limiting the hours/places permitted to drive; or limiting cell phone usage.
• Set the example and remember that you are a role model for your novice teen driver. It is important to be consistent between the message that you tell your teen and your driving behaviors.

Start Your Own Campaign to Stop Distracted Driving

After witnessing the devastating impact that distracted driving can have on families and their futures, Jason Epstein, a personal injury lawyer at Premier Law Group in the Seattle-Bellevue area, decided that he had to take action. With other law firms around the country, he founded Teens Against Distracted Driving (TADD). The organization’s objective is to combat the rise in fatalities and injuries due to distracted driving through education and awareness.

Jason believes, “Safe driving is a team effort,” and suggests that parents can get involved by starting their own campaign against distracted driving. TADD can help in a variety of ways:

• Supply a “starter kit” of TADD educational brochures, presentation materials, and pledge cards;
• Market your campaign on the TADD and Premier Law Group website and Facebook page—we can post photos and videos to help motivate people;
• Provide TADD wrist bands for those who “pledge” of their promise not to text and drive; and
• Welcome new ideas and ways to motivate others!

To see impactful ways teens and others in the community are helping to keep our roads safe, visit TADD’s website.

If you want more information or have any questions about TADD, please feel free to contact Jason Epstein at 206.285.1743 or Jason@premierlawgroup.com

Michelle Lunsford’s life changed forever on 2/22/18. Her only child, Camryn “Cici” Callaway, was killed on her way home from work when, distracted by her phone, ran underneath the back side of an 18 wheeler. She was just 26 days away from her 18th birthday and 3 months to the day of graduation.
Since that day, Michelle has been on a mission to bring awareness to the life and death consequences of distracted driving. She has spoken to schools, churches, radio stations, news reporters, trauma prevention programs, a teen driving workshop and teen driver summits, anyone who is willing to listen. She is also a National Safety Council advocate working for the “Road to Zero” mission to eliminate roadway deaths over the next 30 years.

Currently, Michelle’s goal is to advocate for the “Hands Free Alabama” bill that will be at the capital in March 2019. She continues to encourage responsible driving habits that include going hands free and using a DO NOT DISTURB app (DRIVE SAFE for androids) while driving, using the Life 360 app for monitoring your teenagers driving habits as well as parents and teens committing to holding each other accountable for driving safely while behind the wheel.

Alternative Link: https://youtu.be/T7V7urZ5qQg

Each year, statistics are confirming that there is a distracted driving epidemic in the U.S.  According to the Department of Motor Vehicles, 9 people in the U.S. are killed each day as a result of crashes involving a distracted driver. Even more alarming is the rise in fatal crashes involving teens—driver distraction is responsible for more than 58% of teen crashes, and each day, 11 teens die due to texting while driving.

A group of students at Clark Community College in Vancouver, WA decided to remind their community that deaths and injuries from distracted driving are preventable. Their first-hand experience with close calls as pedestrians and witnessing drivers using their cell phones while navigating the parking lots and college streets spurred them into action. In order to help curb distracted driving around their campus, “We decided to have an awareness event in a high traffic area of our college because we knew it would get a lot of attention from students and faculty,” explained one of the organizers.

To increase the event’s impact, the student group researched organizations in Washington State for support and discovered Teens Against Distracted Driving (TADD) founded by Seattle attorney, Jason Epstein. TADD’s objective is to educate drivers about the dangers of distracted driving and promote safe driving practices, especially among young drivers. The program was proud to help sponsor the event at Clark Community College and provide educational materials for distribution.

The Vancouver Police Department showed their support by attending and helping the student organizers. Attendees responded positively to the awareness event, “We collected over 200 pledge cards from students and staff committing to.  The event was a big success!”

If you are inspired by the Clark Community College students and want to start your own campaign against distracted driving, our team wants to help. Please fill the contact form.

The TADD family is always proud and supportive of any initiative our community can have against distracted driving.
This week, Joey sent us his film “The Lesson”, that shows the impact on others’ lives when you answer a text or your phone while driving.

If you created a campaign, a film or an article regarding distracted driving, please contact our team. We will share and promote your project.

My name is Joey Medina. I’m a professional stand-up comedian and an award-winning filmmaker. The stories of distracted drivers getting into accidents was in my opinion increasing at an alarming rate. But what was heart wrenching were the stories of innocent people whoselives were snuffed out by texting and driving.  I tried to imagine what their loves ones were going through, and the pain I felt just imagining it was more than I could bear.  So I decided to write and direct a short film about what one grieving man did when he was put in that situation. Although, my film contains adult language and violence, I decided this will be the best way to make the viewer feel what the characters were feeling.  I didn’t want to sugar coat something that should be treated seriously and wanted to give the viewers a different angle to look at. Although this film has a protagonist and an antagonist, you soon realize that all the people involved in these types of stories are victims. TADD has been working hard to bring this subject to the forefront, and this is why I decided to share my film with them. In closing, if this film can save just one life, then I’ll consider that a gift to humanity.

Joey Medina

Distracted driving is a problem which concerns all of us, no matter where we live. At Teens Against Distracted Driving, we support all initiative to change this dangerous behavior.
Today, we would like to share the new campaign ran by Karla who confirmed that everybody can help to decrease distracted driving.

If like Karla you would like to start your own campaign against distracted driving, please contact our team.

My name is Karla I’m a junior at Lincoln high school I’m 17 years old and my friend Michelle is also 17 and goes to Pioneer High School. Every morning we watch CNN 10 -a ten-minute news segment for students- and one morning CNN aired a special segment focused on the pure consequences of texting and driving. The story of the victims really struck home even though it’s never happened to me because I felt a responsibility had not been met in order to have helped prevent those accidents. So I took it upon myself to reach out to organizations and that’s when I found Teens Against Distracted Driving. I chose to work with them because I wanted an organization where I would be able to make an impact in my own community and that would compliment me better since I am a teen.

I started by asking my friend Michelle to join me in helping spread the word about TADD and she gladly did. We started through our friends and family members and then I expanded further out into our community. What I did to help spread the word is set up a small booth at a potluck event hosted by Veggielution in San Jose. There I got the opportunity to talk about TADD and their awesome goal in front of about 100 people. That experience was a little nerve wrecking but someone had to tell the community about the dangers in distracted driving. I also got many people to sign the pledge and even make donations.

My friend Michelle spread the word about distracted driving and collected pledges at her school and family gatherings. Michelle was also able to collect donations from her friends and family. With a little teamwork, we were able to help make a difference in the lives of friends, family and strangers. It taught us that all it takes sometimes is a little reminder to ask them if that text is really worth it.
–Karla

After his best friend died in a traffic crash last year because a teen driver plowed into his motorcycle, Christian Childs decided to step in and bring awareness about Distracted Driving to those around him. Christian contacted us, as he wanted to ask students at Perry High School to make the commitment to not use their phone while they drive and sign the pledge card.

Childs said: “I don’t do this for sympathy or anything like that. The only reason why I try to get people to take the pledge is to try to make sure that nobody has to go through what our families went through.”

The school organized a week-long campaign before the school’s prom night. Students will receive a wristband that will help them to remember their pledge while they are driving.

Christian succeeded in having 90 students sign the pledge card.

“If I can get through to one kid and it saves one life, I got my message out,” he said. “It’s small but I hope it’s doing some good out there and that I reach at least one person through this.”

Thank you, Christian, for joining the fight against Distracted Driving!

L.A. recording artist and actor Dalton Cyr recently teamed up with Teens Against Distracted Driving  to launch a campaign about the dangers of texting and driving. Cyr created the concept for a music film trilogy, “Breathe”, that he then wrote and recorded the music, directed, and starred in. Premiering the full film trilogy to a packed theater on April 9, 2017 in Jacksonville, FL. The “Breathe” film tells a story about the fragility of life and love and displays a prevailing message about the impact of distracted driving. Following the premiere, Cyr released the first of the “Breathe” three-part series, “Fall Into Place,” with a worldwide release, which sets up the emotional journey, raising awareness about the dangers of distracted driving. Cyr creates a powerful story that is relatable and delivers a lasting impact. The second and third parts, “Echo” and “Let It Go” will be released in May. Cyr’s mission is to bring the Breathe Trilogy and its message to high schools nationwide. He plans to show the film, talk with his peers and ask them to join him in signing the Teens Against Distracted Driving pledge card.

Cyr says, “Driving on some of the busiest streets in the country out here in L.A. I see people driving and looking at their phones every day. It’s staggering. I know that art can be a very powerful way to communicate an important message. From my first-hand experience speaking to students about other causes, such as bullying and literacy, I also know students are much more open to a message from their peers. So, I decided that I had something with “Breathe” that could perhaps make a difference. That’s when I reached out to Jason Epstein and his team from Teens Against Distracted Driving.”

Testing out his idea, following the inaugural screening of the Breathe Trilogy in Jacksonville, Cyr spoke with those in attendance about the facts surrounding texting and driving along with his experience as a new driver. He encouraged the audience to join him in taking the pledge to put their phones away when driving. There were overwhelming positive reactions for both the film and its message. Laura Martin, parent of a teenage son, wrote, “Very relevant, an amazing story and so well done. Your video should be shown at high school assemblies as a PSA.”

Just 16 years old, Cyr’s goal is to use his growing celebrity to do more of these types of events at schools around the country. A prolific songwriter, described as Ed Sheeran meets Bruce Springsteen, Cyr has experienced great success recently. Two of his songs from his new album, Breathe, have already charted on multiple indie charts across the world. Two of his songs are in the feature film, Time Toys, which he is a supporting lead actor in, and his single, “The Way It Should Be” the official music video for the movie. Cyr also has a recurring role in Pretty Little Liars and will appear in the series finale of the TV show.

You can watch part 1 of the Breathe Trilogy at http://bit.ly/DCyrFallIntoPlace-BreathePart1

For more information or to inquire about hosting your own personal screening party or having Dalton bring Breathe to your high school to raise awareness about Distracted Driving, visit www.DaltonCyr.com

Dalton Cyr with some of the Jacksonville audience who signed Teens Against Distracted Driving pledge cards after watching “Breathe” Music Film Trilogy

Distracted driving is a problem which concerns all of us, no matter where we live.  It isn’t just the U.S. that suffers from texting and driving according to some recently released statistics from Great Britain.
A total of 24,620 people were killed or seriously injured in distracted driving-related accidents in the year ending June 2016 in the UK.  That is an increase of 3% compared to the previous calendar year.
In 2015, 38,300 people were killed in automobile accidents in the U.S., and 4.4 million were seriously injured.

At Teens Against Distracted Driving we support all initiative to change this dangerous behavior. Therefore, we said ‘yes’, when AA Trust contacted us to share their new campaign Never Text and Drive.

 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL3SrAOOFHs&t=1s

 “The more we share the more lives we can save,” said Jason Epstein, the Seattle Personal Injury Attorney who founded Teens Against Distracted Driving whose mission is to educate teenagers and parents about the dangers of distracted driving.

For more information about distracted driving or how you can get involved with T.A.D.D, feel free to email jason@premierlawgroup.com

Kara a Junior at Madonna University in Livonia Michigan created the video above for her Field Production and Editing class. The assignment was to create a Public Service Announcement. Kara endorse a lot of different role for this project: casting agent, director, producer, script writer and editor!

As she said, “Because an another person texting and driving my parents were involved in a car accident. This is why I naturally chose as a theme: texting and driving. To many people, of all ages, driving erratically while using a phone or other devices. I feel that many accidents involve distracted driving. I want to be involve in preventing distracted driving because I believe it will keep the roads safer and in turn save lives. “

This is exactly why we are proud to  publish Kara’s video who show how deadly texting and driving could be!

Thank you Kara for joining the fight against distracted driving!