CARLSBAD, Calif. — I Drive Safely, the nation’s leading online provider of driver education training, today announced the winners of its Teen Essay Contest, which was designed to encourage teens to use safe driving habits during the “100 Deadliest Days for Teen Drivers” from Memorial Day to Labor Day. According to the National Safety Council (NSC), seven of the top 10 deadliest driving days of the year occur in June, July and August.
Winners were selected from hundreds of entrants by a panel of judges based on originality, clarity and effectiveness of style and organization and adherence to format and length rules. Each winning essay will be revealed this week Tuesday through Thursday on the company’s blog called The Express Lane at http://expresslane.idrivesafely.com/.
“We can learn so much from the people around us—especially from people’s driving mistakes,” says first place winner Emily Fisher of Sparks, Nev. “I think it’s important for teens to learn from other teens’ driving mistakes because no matter how great of a driver we think we are, what happened to them can happen to us. When we hear real stories from real teens just like us, we can remember their mistakes and next time we get in the car, we can be sure that we won’t make the same mistake they did.”
The winners of I Drive Safely’s Teen Essay Contest are:
First place: Emily Fisher of Sparks, Nev.: Winner of a new Apple iPad
Second place: Kevin Zhang of Naperville, Ill.: Winner of a $100 Amazon gift card
Third place: Elissa Nguyen of Houston: Winner of a $50 Amazon gift card
“We know that teen drivers have the highest incident rate for tickets and accidents,” says I Drive Safely’s Chief Marketing Officer Greg Hallinan. “We wanted to reach out to teens this past summer and encourage them to share their driving mishaps, get them thinking about the importance of safe driving habits, and ultimately help them share those experiences with other teens. Peer-to-Peer education is an incredibly powerful tool in helping teens make better decisions when they are behind-the-wheel.”
I Drive Safely will continue its educational efforts for teens by launching a Distracted Driving public awareness campaign during the week of National Teen Driver Safety Week Oct. 20-26, 2013. The ongoing campaign will kick off with a “Watch Out Loud” Teen Video Contest on Facebook, encouraging teens to create a video discouraging distracted driving. For more information leading up to the launch of the campaign, visit the Distracted Driving section of The Express Lane Blog at http://expresslane.idrivesafely.com/distracted-driving.
[Download, publish, embed or share an infographic outlining detailed statistics about the Dangers of Teenage Driving: http://teen.idrivesafely.com/dangers-of-teenage-driving.html].
About I Drive Safely
I Drive Safely, LLC is the industry-leading provider of online defensive driver training. The company’s products include driver improvement programs for people who have received a traffic ticket or want to reduce their auto insurance premiums, driver’s education for teens who want to earn their driver’s permit or license, Mature driving programs for drivers 55 and older, and driving safety programs for Commercial Fleets and professional drivers. I Drive Safely, headquartered in Carlsbad, Calif.; was founded in 1998 and is the largest provider of state approved driving courses serving drivers across the United States. For more information, visit www.idrivesafely.com, search for +idrivesafely, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or find us on Pinterest.
