In the next eight weeks, State Farm will be helping to sponsor four high schools participating in the program administered in partnership between the California Highway Patrol and each high school through a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety. These schools are:
The Every 15 Minutes program is a two-day program for high school juniors and seniors, which challenges them to think about drinking, driving, personal safety, the responsibility of making mature decisions, and the impact their decisions have on family, friends, and many others.
The program brings together a broad coalition of interested local agencies with the goal of reducing alcohol-related incidents among youth. The partnering of the California Highway Patrol, local law enforcement, local hospitals, emergency medical responders, schools, businesses, service clubs, and insurance companies validates the importance of working together to ensure a healthy community.
State Farm has partnered with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia on the Young Drivers Research Initiative to fund research in the area of Teen Driver Safety. This research has confirmed what many have suspected; teens are at a high risk of being involved in a tragic vehicle crash. In fact, sixteen-year-olds are three times more likely to die in a car crash than other drivers and two or more teen passengers make fatal teen crash risk five times more likely. For more information on some of the research, go to: www.research.chop.edu/programs/injury/
"The number one cause of death among teens is car crashes," said State Farm Public Affairs Specialist Mike Rossman. "This program is an impactful reminder to teens that cars aren't toys and that bad decisions by any kid can have tragic consequences."
The program takes a lot of pre-planning and affects much of the school for two days. Students are removed from class to represent the "living dead" and the consequences of bad decisions behind the wheel. In addition, a simulated drunk driving collision, involving pre-selected students is staged for the benefit of the student body. Beginning with the 9-1-1 call and continuing with paramedics, law enforcement, firefighters and the coroner, this simulation gives students a stark reality of what happens in a severe crash. For the participating students, this simulation continues all day and overnight. At an assembly the following day all students watch a video recounting the previous day and hear from their peers and parents and other speakers recount their reactions to their "deaths."
Mike Rossman, State Farm Insurance (619) 725-4311.
State Farm insures more cars and homes than any other insurer in the U.S., is the leading insurer of watercraft and is also a leading insurer in Canada. State Farm's 17,700 agents and more than 67,000 employees serve 81 million policies and accounts - almost 79 million auto, fire, life and health policies in the United States and Canada, and nearly 2 million bank accounts. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of companies. State Farm is ranked No. 34 on the Fortune 500 list of largest companies. For more information, please visit statefarm.com® or in Canada statefarm.ca®.
