FAIRFIELD, Conn. U TXT, UR NEXT Thats the new battle cry of the Fairfield Police Explorers. The team of teenagers who work with Fairfields finest have launched a campaign to cut down on distracted driving. One of their priorities is to keep teens from sending text messages while behind the wheel.
This is a very, very serious issue thats plaguing our community, Deputy Police Chief Chris Lyddy said. Hopefully well have a positive impact, reduce the number of accidents, and hopefully well reduce the number of teens across the country involved in this type of accident.
Lyddy explained that 1.6 million accidents each year are caused by distracted drivers. Most of those accidents involve teen drivers. So the Fairfield Police hope that the explorers, who range from 12 to 18 years old, can reach out to their age group.
The explorers have already started parts of their new project, getting students to promise not to text and drive. The group will also design and put out billboards, print advertising and public service announcements.
On Tuesday, they also showed off small rubber thumb bands, given out to friends whove signed the pledge to not text and drive. The bands go over the teens thumb while driving, making text messaging prohibitively difficult.
The explorers received a grant from State Farm Insurance Tuesday afternoon to help with their advertising campaign. Local State Farm agent Steve Boyle said the $32,500 grant is entirely in the hands of the high schoolers in the program, with the help of Lyddy and their other advisors.
Boyle said the group wrote the grant applications by themselves, competing for funding with more than 100 groups across the country. They earned this grant, which makes it that much more special, Boyle said. They really had to earn it.
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