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WA and PennDot mark National Teen Driving week

Wyoming Area High School students and officials joined PennDOT in marking National Teen Driver Safety Week. The program reminds teen drivers and their parents/guardians to be aware of the behaviors that cause most teen driver crashes. Teen driver safety information was distributed during lunch last week at the event, which was spearheaded by Wyoming Area’s student council. Joining PennDOT was the Northeast Highway Safety Program.

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In the photo, seated from left, Nicole Furcon, assistant coordinator Northeast Highway Safety; David Drahus, junior vice president Student Council; Marissa Gallagher, president, Student Council; Lauren Mazzitelli, treasurer, Student Council; Matthew Reedy, Sgt. at Aarms, Student Council, Meghan Williams, senior vice president, Student Council; Rebecca Rybak, cooridinator Northeast Highway Safety.

Standing: Ray J. Bernardi, superintendent; and Chris Alberigi, school police officer; Vito Quaglia, Secondary Center principal.

According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the highest risk of a crash occurring is in the first six months and 1,000 miles of driving. Some key contributors to crashes involving teen drivers in Pennsylvania include driver inexperience and driver distractions.

Congress established National Teen Driver Safety Week last year in response to the more than 5,000 teens who died in teen driver- related crashes on U.S. roads in 2006. National Teen Driver Safety Week is held the third week of October to raise awareness about teens’ elevated crash risks and to highlight the issue of teen driver safety.

For more tips for teens and parents, and to download the Pennsylvania Driver’s and the How to Steer Them to Safe Driving manuals, visit http://www.dmv.state.pa.us/ and click on the Teen Driver Information Center.

More safety information may be obtained by checking out www.neparoads.comPennDOT’s Northeastern Pennsylvania > transportation website. For safety tips, click on "Safety."