BILLINGS — For National Teen Safe Driving Week, a few dozen Billings Public School students were chosen to participate in the Be the Change Fellowship movement to encourage safe driving skills at Mansfield Health Education Center on Friday.
Organized by Safe Kids Yellowstone County, this initiative focuses on preventing unintentional injuries in the community. They enlisted the help of the national organization Impact Teen Drivers with their Be the Change Fellowship program that helps educate teens on stopping distracted and reckless driving.
"We brought this in as an answer to a lot of the problems that we have with the fatalities and the injuries regarding motor vehicle collisions in our teens. It's the number one killer of teens in the state of Montana," said Safe Kids of Yellowstone County Coordinator Koren Bloom.
During the program, students learned about various lethal distractions and how to avoid them. They created posters and video PSAs illustrating safe driving practices, while several speakers shared personal stories about the consequences of distracted driving.
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One of those speakers was Martha Tessmer. Her son Donovan was a senior in high school when he was killed in a car accident several years ago. He was in the passenger seat with other teens in the car. All were distracted by loud music and those in the back seat began telling the driver to go faster until they eventually lost control of the vehicle.
"It was not a way that they would normally have driven. It's not who they were or how they normally acted, but it only took one bad road trip and it changed our life and took his life," said Tessmer.
Since her son's accident, Tessmer has been traveling the country with Impact, hoping to raise awareness about the dangers of distracted driving. She encourages students to advocate for safe driving habits and to speak up when they see risky behavior.
“That's the message I want teens to understand. Every time they get in the car, they have to be cautious. They have to be aware. They have to be careful," said Tessmer. "The other thing I want to make sure they understand is they have to speak up. It might be your one voice that brings the road trip to a safer level and could save a life because I'll always wonder if somebody has spoken up with Donavan and if he’d be alive.”
Nearly 50 students from all public high schools were invited in hopes of returning the message back to their peers.
"They are going to listen to [their peers] a lot more," said Bloom. "We've had a lot of teens that have been involved in fatal collisions over the past few years, and these students are the ones that are feeling the impact the most. Giving them a voice enables them to be the people that are being heard and it gives them the ability to make the changes."
Skyview freshman Chase Erikson had just completed his Drivers Education courses last week and was selected to participate in the program. He said he was able to learn valuable lessons from the program that will continue as he works towards obtaining his license.
"Just always buckle up. Don't drive distracted. Make sure that your passengers feel safe and they're buckled," said Erikson.
Erikson reflected on how these lessons not only apply to his own safety but also to the well-being of others on the road.
“It's so important to me because like you're not only responsible for yourself, you're responsible for your passengers and other people on the road. So you don't want to be distracted and it caused someone else to get hurt or die on the road or one of your passengers. You want to make sure you yourself and other people are safe," said Erikson.
Safe Kids hopes to continue the Be the Change Fellowship annually with more students and develop into safe driving clubs at the schools.
"Especially our kids here lately, they've been hit hard. Their parents have been hit hard. Our first responders, we have been hit hard, and I think that giving these guys the tools in order to make a difference, I am ready for the trauma registry numbers to start declining because I have high hopes as to what these guys can do," said Bloom.
