By Matt Browning
Valley Center’s Katherine Anderson understands how distracting driving can be for teenagers, but she also hopes that she and other SAFE members can make a positive impact for said drivers.
I think within the school SAFE has a large impact, especially being in high school many students drive distracted whether that’s texting someone or just being distracted by passengers,” Anderson said. “But I feel like SAFE has brought awareness that it can be life threatening if you don’t wear a seatbelt.”
There are multiple events throughout the school year that Valley Center’s SAFE program puts on, but there are a couple that Anderson thinks make an impact.
“My personal favorite event is we set up a table at lunch where students can pledge to wear their seatbelts in order to be entered in a drawing to win a gift card,” Anserson said. “Another favorite activity is at half of a basketball game where we picked two students to wear drunk goggles and try to shoot a basket while wearing them in order to promote safe driving and not driving drunk.”
The SAFE program has made a personal connection to Anderson.
“It has benefited me because I haven’t been in a car accident, I don’t use my phone while driving and I try to minimize distractions,” Anderson said. “One of my close friends was in an accident where she was hit by a car. Luckily she was wearing her seatbelt so she came out with only some broken bones and a concussion.”
