CVUSD students hold Distracted Driving Prevention Summit

Distracted driving is a problem at any age, especially for teenagers. So two Coachella Valley Unified School District students took the initiative to organize and educate their peers in a first-of-its-kind-summit in the Coachella Valley.

Desert Mirage seniors Julio Mendez and Agustin Arreola put together the inaugural Teen Youth Driving Summit. The event was aimed to teach about the dangers of distracted driving.

4,000 teenagers die annually in traffic collisions in the US, according to the California Highway Patrol. “They consider the first year of someone driving to be the most dangerous year of their life and we really need people to understand that they have to pay 100% attention to their driving at all times,” said CHP officer Mike Radford.

Distracted driving includes activities like talking on the phone, texting, changing the radio, and even eating while behind the wheel.

The CHP, as well as other organizations like Teens in the Driver Seat, Decide2Drive, and SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) set up booths for an exhibit hall to answer questions as well as provide information.

But keynote speaker Jennifer Zamora-Jamison struck the deepest cord, sharing her story of loss due to distracted driving. Her husband was killed in 2007, and her daughter who survived the car crash committed suicide in October of 2014 from survivor’s guilt. “This is where it’s going to happen,” said Zamora-Jamison. “These are the kids that are going to grow up knowing that it’s wrong and they’re going to be the parents eventually that are going to be good examples for their students.”

Desert Mirage senior Jake Ceja attended the summit and said it opened his eyes. “I think the biggest thing that I took was that when people think ‘it’s not going to happen to me’, there was a lot of examples of people we saw here today who have lost loved ones, who thought that it wouldn’t happen to them.”

Event co-organizer Arreola lost his father to a distracted driver seven years ago and was happy to share his story and the overall message. “So with the videos and the presentations, they’re seeing that it happens,” Arreola said. “It happens to anybody. We’re not invincible. We are human beings and we make mistakes.”

His co-organizer Mendez also weighed in. “If (students) can go home and tell their peers or pass on our message to somebody else, that’s our goal and that’s what this is all really about.”