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Mazda Fights Driver Distrations in Support ot Teen Driver Safety Week


teen driver

--Young Mazda Racers and National Anti-Distracted Driving Organization to Work Together--

IRVINE, CA--Oct. 12, 2012: Social media is more addicting than alcohol and cigarettes, according to Discovery News. AAA Foundation says it is this addiction, along with other non-cell phone related distractions, which drive up to 8,000 car accidents each and every day. In 2009, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported 5,474 people were killed in distracted driving related accidents in addition to 448,000 injuries attributed to the same cause. Julie Garner and her family know all too well about the dangers of distracted driving. It is for this reason that she and her family created Project Yellow Light. With Teen Safety Week being October 14-20, this is an ideal time to reach teenagers as they begin the school year.

Dedicated to the education of those most commonly affected, Project Yellow Light strives to show teens and young adults the importance of staying focused on the road ahead. Garner was directly affected by a distracted driving accident when her son, Hunter, was killed in a car accident in 2007. Since the accident, it has been her family's pledge to educate teens and young adults on the dangers of driving while distracted.

"The premise behind Project Yellow Light is to give teens a big voice in reducing the number of car crashes -- because they have a unique voice and the ability to get through to their friends, their peers, in a way adults cannot," said Julie Garner,Project Yellow Light co-founder. "Teens will listen to their friends more readily than they will listen to an authoritative figure talking down to them."

Every year, Project Yellow Light challenges teens to create 60-second public service announcement videos surrounding the subject of distracted driving. This year, the topic is, "One Text or Call Could Wreck It All," as provided by distraction.gov. Previously, the scholarships have only been available to high-school students; however, the recent partnership with Mazda has allowed Project Yellow Light to expand their reach to include college students.

"The topic of distracted driving is so important to all of us. As parents, family and friends, it is important that we all look out for each other on the road," said John Doonan, director of Mazda Motorsports, Mazda North American Operations. "Through motorsports representation, we hope to reach a far greater audience and show the public the importance of on-road safety."

Mazda Motorsports has partnered with Project Yellow Light to help bring exposure to the challenge of distracted driving, because their young racers, such as Zach Veach, can have a great impact with teens because they are teens themselves. When Zach was just 15 he developed an Android phone app that automatically responds to text messages while the owner is driving. There are many other young drivers like Veach on the Mazda Road to Indy driver-development ladder who work hard to support the distracted driving campaign in order to greatly reduce the number of accidents and deaths each year.