Education known as the art of driving. Brian thompson is a consultant and janene martin joins us. Thank you for having us. You founded art in memory of your 16yearold daughter, ashley who died in 2003. Tell us what happened to her. It was a sunny june afternoon, about 2 00, ashley was at home and she was returning to her high school. And she was on a road that she traveled every day, that she knew well. She was about three blocks from the home. And for some reason that were still not sure of, she overcorrected and when she overcorrected she put the car into a skid and she hit a tree and was killed instantly. The police feel that something or someone ran in front of her and caused her to make that sudden swerve. Ashleys crash and thats what i accidents, is very textbook. Majority of teen fatalities are what we call off the road. The teen will overcorrect, put the car into a skid and hit a hard object. And, again, ashley was only three blocks from the phone. No cell phone used. No other passengers in the car to distract her. Not under the influence. And i found her on my way home from work that day. I was coming up the road in burke and came upon the accident scene. And it was at that time i struggled with trying to figure out how Something Like this could happen to a teen who was, for all intent and purposes very grounded, you know, honor student, competitive athlete. What quickly learned was those things have nothing to do with it. Most people have perceptions that this happens to careless reckless teens and thats her. It wasnt the case. Frequently, its not the case. Its not so much that theyre wreckless, its that they truly dont perceive dangers. Our teens dont perceive the risks and dangers. Its not so much purposeful on their part. They truly dont perceive the risk and danger. So within months of ashleys crash, i began talking to students at her high school. And based on their response, i knew i had to reach more teens. So was this sort of therapeutic for you . You know, a lot of people have asked me that. I think initially it was. But it isnt easy retelling the story over and over again. Sure. It truly isnt. But when i see the response from teens and i see the response from parents when i speak to parent groups, and i know that im making an making a difference and along with ashleys inspiration, thats what keeps me moving forward. Brian, she was your sister. Yes. So it must have been pretty tough for you. It was. Its never easy seeing anyone you care and love. Especially a sibling. Its a different kind of loss. But i was, you know, very proud of what my mom turned around and did in the wake of that. And very proud of the fact that the art of driving kind of came out of that. And has helped so many teens and parents. Not go through the same thing and to kind of get the message out there that this is a major problem, major Health Epidemic we need to fix. Janene, its a problem not only teens are dealing with, distracted driving is a big issue for all of us. You volunteer with your organization. With art, what youve learnled what youve observed. I think one of the main things i learned working with robin it wasnt just an issue when kids start to turn 15, 16, that we need to start paying attention to safe driving. Its actually something you want to create this culture of safe driving that starts all the way down when theyre 5 years old. Statistics i learned from robin, that she can put better than i could, thats actually the leading cause of death for children of that age is car crash. I think most people would think its drownings or, you know, something along those lines and not actually a car accident. Children that young. Passengers in the car. For decades, for our 15 year olds to 20 year olds for decades its been the leading cause of death. The cdc released latest statistics that tell us its the leading cause of death so we find it necessary to reach younger chirn eer children, par younger children. We went into an Elementary School and had them do valentines projects. They put them in the car and put the seat belt on and said i love you. And getting parents to understand that they need to role model at a very early age. They may be in the back seat in the car seat, but theyre paying attention. Thats one thing our 5k did, our survive to 5 5k. We had parents with children and toddlers. The mother came to me and said, i didnt know i had to think about this yet. Well continue or talk about the art of driving and distracted driving when we continue our program. Narrator all that political mail mlets simplify. Lming. Only one candidate has been endorsed by the Washington PostKathleen Matthews. As a journalist and progressive leader at marriott, she has a broad and deep facility with policy. Emilys list praises matthews as prochoice and the post says on gun control, clean energy, education and Health ResearchKathleen Matthews has greater potential, following the van hollen model, to move the ball forward. Kathleen im Kathleen Matthews and i approve this message. Welcome back. Were talking about distracted driving in teens. We were just talking, picking up on the point you made before the break about driving, good driving training actually starting at a very early age. Most people dont think of, you know, 5yearolds as being even interested in cars, driving cars. But the truth of the matter is, they do get interested. Theyre watching. Theyre watching what youre doing. Theyre watching what youre doing. Theyre watching how you handle the road. If youre screaming at the driver next to you. If youre drinking a latte, if youre on the phone, if youre being aggressive. They pick up on this. Thats why when we work with parents, we help them understand that role modeling is so important. And it needs to start at a very young age. Not once they have a driving permit in their hands. Janene, you were just, during the break, talking about how the way the media portrays driving as being one of the factors here. Yes, because if you think fast and furious franchise. Its how Actor Paul Walker actually died was a car crash where speed was involved. Or car commercials where its all about how fast it is. There was a hiyandai commercial that showed a little girl driving aggressively in the back seat and the dad doing doughnuts in the parking lot and hes like, do you want to do it again, and shes like, yeah. What are you teaching . Using the car to do dangerous things. Thats not what we want to portray. We glamourize cars. As she talks about the car commercials with very young sexually dressed women and the way the cars look so sleek and the commercial looks like it has nothing to do with the car until we see the car at the end. Absolutely. But kids are watching all of this. Brian, the nna crisis, are we treating distracted driving and the issue, the problem of teens dying and being maimed on the road, are we treating it like its a National Health crisis . I dont think so. I think theres definitely a movement to try to get there. Right people are trying to make that known. Think that, you know, the studies are coming out time and time again. But i dont i dont see it being done that way. I do see what, you know, were doing with the driving, you know, robin could speak more to that in terms of getting in with School Nurses and doctors. You know, this is a Public Health crisis. And if we approach it as such and if we use the Public Health model, i think wed make better leadway. For example, lets look at what happened with smoking. Smoking was a public Health Epidemic. And im of the generation where tv. Very similar to the Automotive Industry advertisements. It was glamourized, sexualized. Then we realized what a health risk it was. We realized it was not only a health risk to the person but to bystanders. That changed. The advertising, well, it vanished. We dont have the advertising anymore. And we changed perceptions and attitudes of the population. Thats what needs to happen with driving. We need to change attitudes, perceptions. There are so many reminders of the dangers out there, of the risks of driving. There are news stories. There are awareness campaigns. Some 48 states in the district have now bann ened texting and driving. And many have cracked down on the use of cell phones behind the wheel. Are we not getting the message . I dont think so. I think its a great first step. I thihe are fantastic and first step. I think one of the problems that we still have though is the enforcement. Theres not enough ability to enforce it. Some of those violations arent primary offenses. Meaning that the police arent able to pull the person over for texting or being on the phone. That its simply a secondary offense. If theyre pulled over for something else, they ecan be ticketed for that. How do you know if someones actually texting in the car . They might be looking down for only a few seconds. But i think one of the things that i know we talk about is, you know, i think the average time that someone would be looking at the phone texting is about five seconds. If youre traveling 55 miles an hour on the road which i think is the general speed limit. The highways around throat ar metro area, you would travel a whole football field in five seconds. Well continue right after this. Check out the fresh new look on Mcdonalds Mcpick 2 menu try a flaky filetofish made with sustainably sourced fish, a big mac made with 100 beef, chicken mcnuggets made with white meat, or a quarter pounder with cheese seared on the grill. Pick any 2 for 5 bucks. Bada ba ba ba thank you so much. Did you say honey . Hey, try some . Mmm that is tasty. Is it real . Of course. Are you . Nope animated you know im always looking for real honey for honey nut cheerios well youve come to the right place. Great, mind if i have another taste . Not at all mmm youre all right bud . Never better i dont know if he likes that. Yeah ill see you at home. The egg mcmuffin. Made with a fresh cracked egg and real butter. Only at mcdonalds. Im lovin it. Welcome back. We are talking with art, the art of driving this morning. The foundation teaches youngsters, teenagers and their parents about the risks. One of the things you do is help them recognize the risks, correct . We do. The art of driving which stands for awareness, responsibility and training, as well as ashley renee thompson, we are an outreach program. The art of driving is the Educational Outreach program. We go into schools, youth groups, ptas, others, and we help teens and parents and the community understand the very unique risks that our teen drivers face and how to effectively minimize those risks. Talk about some of the uniqueness of the risks for teens. Obviously youre dealing with young people who are inexperienced. And who dont understand that driving isnt glamorous, its very dangerous. Right. Well, i think the risks exist for every driver. I think within the realm of distracted driving, one of the things that teens have a harder obstacle to get over is the fact the brain hasnt fully developed. Its the same thing with drinking. When it comes to driving, there are decisions the process center in the brain hasnt fully developed. Thats something that robin has focused on theyre more easily distracted than an older driver. They dont recognize hazards as being hazard does. All of that is lack to development in the frontal cortex. Can we throw into the mix the obsession teens and adults have with social media, cell phones, janene. I travel a lot for my own job. Ill be driving next to somebody and theyre doing something they shouldnt be doing and i look over and sure enough theyre on their phone and thats an adult. For a kid who hasnt quite mastered, you know, where everything is in the car, feels as comfortable as an adult does, it just confounds the issue even more. So driving is riskier i think today than it was when i learned to drive in high school, when there was nothing else to distract me other than my imagination and my excitement about being behind the wheel and the feeling of being independent, being able to take myself where wanted to go and sort of certainly is. For art, its even manifested more so for the teen. Because theyre not ready to take on those added distractions and risks at this point, again, because of brain development. What i have found is when working with teens and parents, once they understand why theyre at risk and whats behind this, they cant recognize hazards. Parents are more willing to monitor and restrict their teens driving. Teens are more willing to accept those restrictions that parents can then place on them to keep them safe during that very critical time. Lets get you through that learning curve a bit. By monitoring, restricting. Not giving them access to their own vehicle. Not letting them drive at night without supervised driving. No passengers in the car. No teen passengers in the car. Theres things we can put in place to keep them and getting them more supervitzed driving time, weve really stressed that. Ou also hold classes. You brought palmlets here. You use teens to teach teens. Tell us about those parts of your program. Absolutely so. What that is, its our teen task force. What that is, we go into schools and set up peer to peer kind of centers, where teens support teens. What that means is they take the pledge to be safer drivers and safer passengers. Its one thing to have the driver on their phone checking facebook and saying hey, soandso is talking about this. As a driver, thats distracting. Its also distracting to have your friend sitting next to you telling you that or people in the back seat telling you that so we try to install and get the teens to support one another. To say no, thats not safe, we shouldnt be doing that. We need to let the driver focus on the road. You got a bunch of steps in they read this. And then do they actually get to practice it . What they do is it runs like a club would run in a high school. So its peer led, peer to peer. They do activities every month. They come up with their own ideas as to how theyre going to spread the word about surviving the five. When we talk about surviving the five, were talking about the five leading causes of teen fatality, number one is experience, distraction, speed, lack of use of seat belts and drug and alcohol. In that order. So inexperience is the leading cause of teen fatalities. So we encourage teens to accept that experience. For example, virginia says they need 45 hours of behind the wheel. Studies say they need 100 minimum. Okay. Were talking about the art of driving and distracted driving. Well be right back. Stay with us. You could spend or you can spend it on this. You could spend your buck on this. Or you can spend it on this. This . Or this. This . Or any of these ten delicious items on taco bells new 1 morning value menu. Each for just a buck. The new 1 morning value menu at taco bell. Its not even fair. [sfx bong] welcome back. Janene, you are organizing a 5k run for art of driving and its one of your biggest fundraisers. Its one of the ways you support your scholarship. Definitely helping robin with it and its just, you know, a great way to get the message out and then it does its our primary way of being able to fund the scholarship that goes out every year. This june, well be giving our 13th memorial scholarship. Weve helped 12 girls so far reach their college dream. And actually this year weve expanded it. Its opened to boys and girls. We expanded the School Districts its available to as well. Fairfax county, or ling to arlis church and alexandria. Anyone can apply . Anyone can apply, thats right. Brian, one of the things you do in your program is you advocate for better training. Which you say really hasnt evolved. Along with all of our cars and our gadgets. Right. I mean, i think, you know, studies have shown that increase behind the wheel for teen drivers and novembice drivers i going to be important down the road, in terms of getting the experience they need. The program that teens go true now is similar to what i went through and what others went through, 10, 15, 20 years ago. If you look at the cars we had at that time versus the cars we have today between gps, satellite radio, televisions in the back, which is fantastic but, i mean, its all gadget driven, technology driven, more things to distract you. I think thats a huge problem. The number of things we have on the sides of our roads, the construction, especially in this area. Youve discovered another big issue is for teens who are teens. To speak up, when they feel their safety is at risk . Robin had given me the statistic about 50 of teens feel theyre in an unsafe situation will not speak up and say Something Like, hey, youre going too fast or this makes me feel uncomfortable because they dont want to be singled out. One of the good things about the task force is it sort of gives them communication skills to advocate for themselves. Speak up, use your voice. All right, robin thompson, brian thompson, janene martin, thank you, thank you for the work youre doing. Thank you. That is viewpoint this morning. Im pat lawson muse. Stay with us now, news 4 today begins. Right now on news 4 today, an inmate ties in police custody. What were finding out as investigators piece together an emergency in northern virginia. A teenage boy gunned down at a d. C. Metro station. New concerns about safety for riders as a family pleads for answers. Three for three. Bernie sanders pulls off win this is alaska, hawaii and washington state. The big challenges that lie ahead in the race for the white house. Thank you for joining us this easter sunday. Im meagan fitzgerald. And im chris gordon. Now it will be a lot cooler today. And for those of you heading out to services, you may want