(Submitted photo/Parachute)

By Ben Tompkins

NTDSW

Melfort EMS partners with Parachute for National Teen Driver Safety Week

Oct 18, 2021 | 3:35 PM

Parachute is holding its ninth annual National Teen Driver Safety Week (NTDSW) to build public awareness of teen driver safety issues and encourage communities to be part of the solution.

NTDSW provides the tools to take this important messaging to the community. Their messages and resources also allow stakeholders and partners to prioritize teen driver safety issues in communities, engage people in the conversation about teen driver safety and create change around this big issue.

The week is being held from Oct, 17–23, with the hope of maintaining the momentum from last year’s campaign. Keeping with the same theme, this year the primary focus is on the critical issue of speeding among teens. Their additional messaging is around drug-impaired, drunk, distracted and aggressive driving and rail safety.

“The hope is to keep the momentum going with critical issues among our teen drivers and trying to reduce accidents and collisions and trying to get our teens home safe,” said Wayne Therres, manager of the Melfort EMS. “This year there is a little bit more messaging around impaired, distracted and aggressive driving, as well as railroad safety. It’s a week we hope to encourage teens, parents and community partners to join a conversation to make sure that our new drivers are staying safe.”

Although the Melfort EMS is unable to hold any in-person gatherings due to COVID-19, they have passed on the virtual campaign to many organizations in the community, including schools, in the hopes that information will continue to be shared.

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“Because of COVID, that’s exactly what Parachute is trying to do again this year,” said Therres. “Get that stuff out there online, get some messages out through the media and help to eliminate or at least decrease the number of collisions that we’re seeing in teen drivers.”

Therres also said that this week means a lot to his team because of how serious these issues are and how they can be prevented.

“It’s an important week for us because we want to try and help eliminate the crashes and unsafe attitudes or driving practices that cause teen accidents. We know that nationally, between the ages of 19 and 24, road crashes are the third leading cause of death,” said Therres. “We want to try and eliminate that and bring those risk factors down. Hopefully, by just identifying some risk factors that are out there and providing some information, we can help decrease those crashes.”

Parachute is Canada’s national injury prevention organization. Their goal is for Canadians to have a long life, lived to the fullest.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8