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Community Corner

Teen Driving Summit Thursday

Metro Area Safe Communities Coalition's fourth annual event to be held at Rosemount Community Center.

Editor's Note: Information from a press release from the MASC.

The Metro Area Safe Communities (MASC) Coalition will hold its fourth annual Teen Driving Summit on Thursday at the Rosemount Community Center. Building on this year’s theme of From Impact to Inspiration, educational sessions will be offered on how to reach parents of new drivers, the award winning PSA from Stillwater High School, and the release of the new Distracted Dodger game by the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Institute at the University of Minnesota.

“This event highlights the great work that all of our communities do to save lives by helping teens make better decisions behind the wheel,” said Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom.

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While progress has been made, Minnesota teen drivers continue to be overrepresented in traffic crashes due to driver inexperience, distractions, speeding/risk taking, and seat belt non-use. According to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, in 2010:

  • Drivers ages 16-19 represented only 5.8 percent of all Minnesota drivers, but were involved in 11.3 percent of all 2010 traffic crashes.
  • Drivers ages 16–19 were involved in 8.8 percent of all fatal crashes, and 11.1 percent of all injury crashes.
  • Forty-one teens ages 15–19 were needlessly killed on Minnesota roads. Thirty were male and 11 were female.

“It is clear that more help and awareness is needed in the area of teen driving. We’ve got great resources in our community and we are pleased to be able to bring them together” said Lt. Eric Roeske of the Minnesota State Patrol.

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Over 160 attendees including school advisors, resource officers, law enforcement, traffic safety and student leaders will come together to explore this issue, discuss intervention and prevention, and will get hands on experience with interactive methods to best reach teens.

“We are excited to roll out the different kinds of tools that meet a variety of learning styles, especially given the number of student leaders who are participating in this year’s summit,” said Lisa Kons of the Minnesota Safety Council.

The event, which runs from 8:45 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., will open with keynote speaker Trish VanPilsum and close with a moving presentation by Vijay Dixit recounting the life and tragic death of Shreya Rekha Dixit of Eden Prairie who was killed by a distracted diver in 2007.

“As prosecutors and law enforcement, we have the obligation to help kids understand that their split-second choices behind the wheel can have life-altering consequences,” said Ramsey County Attorney John Choi.

Joining Choi and Backstrom are Dakota County Sheriff Dave Bellows and Ramsey County Sherriff Matt Bostrom.

MASC Coalition partners include AAA, Dakota County, Hennepin County Medical Center, Minnesota Safety Council, Minnesota State Patrol, Ramsey County, Scott County Safe Communities Coalition, Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Office of Traffic Safety and Washington County.

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