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Many people have their lives touched by car accidents. In fact, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety’s 2012 Traffic Safety Culture Index, almost one out of every three people in America has lost a relative, loved one or friend in an auto accident or knows someone who has suffered serious injury in a crash. Many of these people who lose loved ones may take legal action against those responsible for the crash and/or may quietly mourn in private where their stories are often never told. 
When one Oregon woman was impacted by a crash, however, she decided to take action. According to WDTV.com, the Oregon woman began to travel around and created a program to educate teenagers about making good driving choice. Her wish is that she can help at least one student to avoid becoming a statistic like her sister. Our Portland, OR personal injury attorneys support the important effort this young woman is making. Car accident deaths are a leading cause of death for young drivers and it is essential that teenagers learn about how dangerous certain driving behaviors are and about how to make good choices behind the wheel.
The Oregon Woman’s Safe Driving Quest
According to WDTV.com, Cara Filler’s twin sister died in a car accident one day after the twins turned 18 years old. When Filler’s sister died, Filler decided to try to do something to make a difference and to spare other teens the same fate. She created a program that would hopefully help other teens to avoid becoming involved in a serious auto accident or otherwise getting hurt during their teen years.
Filler, who was described by WDTV as a world-renowned motivational speaker, is now on a statewide tour through Oregon and will be visiting seventeen schools. The tour has been called Drive to Save Lives and the program is intended to empower and teach high schoolers how to make smart decisions. While the program also includes help for teens on dealing with issues they face at school and at parties, one of the top focuses is on driving behaviors that can cause auto accidents.
Filler’s aim is on helping teenagers to fight against peer pressure and make their own smart choices. Unfortunately, a lot of teens are at great risk when they drive for many different reasons. For example:
- Teens have less driving experience and are less able to cope with night time driving or when driving in bad weather with reduced visibility.
- Teens are more likely to be distracted with friends in the car or to take unnecessary risks when they have friends as passengers who they want to impress.
- Teens are more likely to engage in texting and driving than adult peers. Distraction.gov reported on one survey where 40 percent of teens indicated they’d been in a car with a fellow teen driver doing something dangerous with a cell phone.
- Teens are more likely to drive drowsy and less likely to pull over when nodding off than drivers in other age groups are.
- Teens are at risk of driving drunk or intoxicated.
These are just a few of the dangerous behaviors that teenage drivers engage in. Hopefully, Filler’s program will help teens to avoid these dangerous behaviors and to reduce their risk of becoming involved in a car accident that could be deadly.
If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident in the Portland area, contact Zbinden & Curtis. Call (503) 287-5000.
