Must-See Texting and Driving Video Tells Stories from the Heart

Last updated on August 27th, 2013 at 10:01 am

If you and your older children haven’t yet seen the new texting and driving documentary, “From One Second to the Next,” you really should. While, at 35 minutes, it may be a bit long for kids to want to sit through, the searing emotional stories told from the perspective of victims and their families – and even from those whose text messages caused the loss of life – make this a unique and riveting film.

Made by acclaimed director, Werner Herzog, who – according to IMDb – was voted the 35th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly, this film tells the story of four disturbing and horrific accidents through the people who were impacted or involved, including even the police who responded to the scenes, rather than resorting to visual displays of the tragic accidents. The result is still sometimes difficult to watch, but probably more impactful in the end. You can access the full documentary and also shorter clips via YouTube – and your children may end up seeing it at school as the corporate cell phone sponsors are making 40,000 copies available to government agencies, schools and safety organizations.

The National Safety Council estimates that 100,000 car crashes annually are related to texting and driving, while cell phone conversations are implicated in 12 times as many accidents. This documentary is a potent message about the need to remain “distraction-free” while driving – one which both teens and parents need to hear.

Keeping Teens Safe on New Year’s Eve

Last updated on March 9th, 2018 at 11:21 am

Do you know what your teenager’s plans are for celebrating New Year’s Eve? Will he be going out with friends or attending a party? Will she be driving or riding with other teenagers? Have you made a plan for keeping your teenager safe during and after the festivities?

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day two-day holiday is the most deadly and dangerous time to be on the road, with a startling increase in drunk driving deaths over any other time of year. And even though teenagers are under the legal drinking age, unfortunately there will be many of them drinking as part of their celebrations. For these reasons, it is vitally important to know your teenager’s plans and to make a plan for his or her safety.

Talk with your teen about the dangers of drinking and driving and make it clear that underage drinking is not only dangerous, it is illegal. If he is not driving and ends up in a situation where others are drinking, tell your child to call you and you will pick him, no questions asked. If your child is the driver, talk about the importance of staying focused on the road, avoiding distractions such as texting or talking on the phone and defensive driving since other drivers may be impaired.

Find out who your teen will be with and where they will be spending the evening. If possible, they should stay in one location for the majority of the evening and not travel throughout the night. Establish check in times for your teenager to call or text you and set a curfew for when she must home. If she’s spending the night at a friend’s house, call and verify with the friend’s parents.

If you are concerned about letting your teenager go out for the evening, consider hosting a party for him and his friends at your home. Keep in mind that you will need to check to make sure no one brings in alcohol or is/has been/will be drinking or you could be held liable if they have an accident after leaving your home. If you suspect a teen has been drinking, take their car keys and call their parents to come get them.

If you don’t want to host a party, there are other safe alternatives in many communities that can provide fun ways for teens to ring in the New Year. Check local businesses such as skating rinks, amusement parks, laser tag centers, movie theaters and other teen-oriented places to see if they are offering a “lock-in” party or event that teens can attend. Some churches host New Year’s Eve celebration parties for teens and/or families too.

Of course, staying home and celebrating together as a family is also an alternative. If your teenager is open to the idea and you do not have other plans, consider staying off the road and just having a fun family night with movies, board games, video games, or other activities. My family has a tradition of celebrating at home and inviting friends over so we all stay safe and have fun together.

Wishing you all a very Happy (& Safe) New Year!

Protecting Our Teen Athletes – ECG Screening Saves Lives

Last updated on March 9th, 2018 at 09:59 am

Gabby Douglas, Jordan Wieber and McKayla Maroney from this year’s US Olympic team are truly amazing athletes, captivating to watch. They are 16 and 17 years old. It’s hard to imagine that any one of these could have an underlying, perhaps lethal heart problem. It’s equally hard to believe that any of our teenagers could.

Yet every year, a hand full of high school athletes across the country suffers sudden cardiac arrest. One huge difference between our Olympic athletes and our ‘normal’ teenage athletes is that the Olympians have undergone thorough and complete physicals including ECG’s.

In researching this I found a variety of red flags including that national testing standard for teenage athletes exists but is often not followed and often ECG’s are not included due to expense. I also read of one area where local EMS is used to conduct the ECG which is then read remotely by a cardiologist. This is one way to overcome the expense and it just required asking.

I also discovered that 44 states require screening but the nature of the screening is all over the place and that many doctors simply don’t know to or include ECG’s.

It is hard to define the exact number of teens and families this impacts each year- one article suggests as many as 2000 a year. The underlying etiology is almost completely invisible. A couple of histories that may be relevant include a history of fainting by the teenager and a history of sudden cardiac arrest in family members under 50 years old. Even without these, every teen athlete should be properly screened.

Another reason that this is called invisible is that a teen may attend every practice, participate in game after game, go full out with no signs or consequences and then… sudden cardiac arrest.

The timing is now as the Olympics wind down, middle and high schools all across the country are getting ready to start which means the new athletic season. Parents need to assure that their school is following national standards for screening. Look to cardiologists within the community and the parent group as well. Ask your EMS agency to participate.

Even though most schools are required by law to have EMS and physicians attend all football games, they often are not at other events. Schools MUST have AED’s at all sporting events- even when EMS is there. AED’s and EMS need to be close to the action. Often EMS and the AED are off on the side lines. It may seem close but the reality is it may take minutes to get to the patients side. Coaches, trainers, physicians, teachers etc should all know the new hands-only CPR.

Preventing a sports related sudden cardiac arrest is the best approach. But be prepared for those rare times when sudden cardiac arrest does occur.

In researching this piece I found two relevant sites both based on personal loss:

• http://nickoftimefoundation.org/
• http://learnedfromdaniel.blogspot.com/2011/03/sudden-cardiac-arrest-in-children-and.html

Kids and Alcohol – An “Inappropriate” Subject?

Last updated on March 3rd, 2018 at 11:18 am

My nine-year old son, Elliott, recently had another “inappropriate” incident at school. If you read my post from December 9, 2011 entitled, It’s Important to Explain Why “That’s Inappropriate!” you’ll know that I feel this term has become something of an excuse for avoiding challenging discussions with kids in our care. That said, sometimes it’s not obvious how best to handle some of the things our kiddos say and do – and there’s always a learning opportunity in these experiences….

This time the inappropriate statement took place during library period. The fourth-grade class was having a learning session with the librarian and ideas on how to be useful and good to others were being exchanged. As my son put it, they were discussing “how not to be lazy and just sit around playing video games all day.” So what did my bundle of joy offer up?…

“Well, you could do something nice for your parents – like get them some nice steaks and a bottle of wine for dinner.”

Hmmm…a lovely sentiment…doing something nice for your parents. But there’s just the small complication that he’s clearly under the legal drinking age – so can’t purchase alcohol, and probably shouldn’t even be handling it. This idea quickly breaks down in the implementation phase!

If only the librarian had focused on the sentiment – and the funny side – of his comment, then things might have ended there. Instead she told him “that’s inappropriate!” and proceeded to complain to his homeroom teacher and the school’s Assistant Principal….sheesh!

Now I volunteer at my son’s school library, and I really like the librarian. Nevertheless, I have to admit….I was mad! Do I wish my nine-year-old son had suggested something else – something less…controversial? Absolutely yes! But there was no way I was going to call him to account for this. His intention was good – and he didn’t really do anything wrong. If the librarian had praised his sentiment but emphasized that it wasn’t legal for kids to carry this out – and why such laws exist – it might have been a great teachable moment. Instead, he was just made to feel badly for a situation he didn’t fully appreciate.

You see, his comment has to be taken in context – cultural context. Our home and family has a strong European orientation. My husband is first-generation American. Both his parents are from Europe – and most of his relatives still live across the pond. Additionally, we both spent a decade of our early adult years living and working in Europe. With that background, we share an interest in good wines paired with a nice dinner – or a glass of aged port with cheese. We also hold mulled wine parties in the depths of winter, and I cook with wine – in risotto or to make reductions for beef tenderloin.

Consequently, wine – alcohol – is a fairly common presence in our house. That said, we have family members who don’t drink alcohol and we always provide plenty of non-alcoholic beverages at parties. We also have a local college student as a regular babysitter and “adopted” family member – and we were careful not to serve her wine with dinner until she turned 21. My thought was always that demonstrating moderate and responsible alcohol use at home was better than making alcohol a taboo subject.

Nevertheless, this incident got me thinking. Elliott has had several educational sessions throughschool about the dangers of cigarettes and he’s very attuned to the risks of smoking and even second-hand smoke. However, his school has not held any sessions about the nature and risks of alcohol. Maybe just demonstrating responsible use of alcohol isn’t enough? Does he even understand why kids and young adults are restricted from purchasing and consuming alcohol? To better tackle this issue I did some research and found a useful resource from the National Institutes for Health or NIH (an agency of the US Department of Health and Human services and one of the world’s leading medical research organizations) called Make a Difference – Talk to Your Child about Alcohol. Interestingly, the booklet is aimed at parents of children aged 10-14. Since my son is about to turn 10, I guess this isn’t too early to start broaching the topic of alcohol – especially since the NIH states that “parents have the greatest influence on their child’s values and decisions about drinking before he or she begins to use alcohol.” And given that 20% of eighth graders in a national survey reported drinking alcohol within the previous month and 17% said they had gotten drunk in the previous year, there’s no time to waste.

So, we’ve started our talks about drinking. Sure enough, Elliott didn’t have a full appreciation of the nature of alcohol or the risks involved in drinking. And he wasn’t entirely sure why I was bringing this up. But we’re making progress, and at least we’re communicating about a difficult subject – and not just labeling it “inappropriate.”

Speedbump

Last updated on August 31st, 2015 at 12:22 am

Hi, my name is Jon Fischer. I have always had an interest in technology and was the Massachusetts Middle School Robotics Champion 3 years in a row. I wanted to enter the Massachusetts State Science Fair in 2006 (my Junior year of high school), but wasn’t sure what I could do for an original technology project.

Then one of my older friends crashed his car speeding on a back road, severely injuring him and 2 others. After his recovery, the driver told me he knew he was driving much too fast for that road but never thought he would actually crash. I had seen similar stories in the local papers and continued to learn more about the issue in drivers ed. I noticed a recurring theme with teen driver accidents: they almost always seemed to happen on back roads. I decided to do some research and proved my theory, speeding on non-highway roads (local or back roads and secondary roads) is statistically much more dangerous than on highways. I realized that this was a big problem and set out to solve it for my science fair project.

My first step in the project was to research what products already existed for teen safe driving. I found a few products out there, but they were all “constant tracking solutions” to continuously track your teen, which have a number of issues. First, parents would have to dig through mountains of data to find if their teen was ever speeding. Second, this approach is just too invasive for teens. I knew I could build a better solution for both parents and teens!

By the end of the science fair, I had developed a hardware prototype running my own custom software that allowed monitoring of speeding by road class. Although very rudimentary and by no means a useable product, my prototype worked. It was able to be mounted into a car and detect the type of road being driven on with GPS, and then determine if the car was traveling at an appropriate speed for the road. If the car was speeding, the prototype would save the location and speed data which could be viewed on a computer. But if the driver was being safe on the road, the prototype wouldn’t log any kind of data about the driver.

I got an honorable mention in the science fair and was happy with the prototype I had made. Following the science fair presentation, my dad (who was running a small business he had started several years earlier) suggested trying to commercialize my prototype into a real product. I then wrote a business plan over the summer and entered the Mount Wachusett Community College Business Plan Competition in the fall. To my surprise, I won! And took home almost $20,000 to start my business.

I used some of this money to file a patent on “the ability to monitor speed by road class” and used the rest to incorporate the business. Because of this business plan competition win, I was also able to get several entrepreneurial scholarships for college and attended Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. I chose Champlain because of their BYOBiz (Bring Your Own Business) program. BYOBiz is an extracurricular program at Champlain that provides student entrepreneurs with resources to build their business; primarily mentorship and a shared office space on campus.

It took another 2 years, and a partnership with a hardware manufacturer before release of my first version of the product, Speed-Demon, a commercialized version of the hardware I developed in the science fair. Unfortunately I was only able to sell 52 in a year’s time. Every parent that bought one said they loved the product and saw a vast improvement in their teen’s driving while using the product. However, I received a lot of feedback from parents who could not afford the $250 dollar upfront cost of the box, plus a $15 dollar a month subscription to the service.

I could not bring the cost of the hardware down any further and now, for the first time, thought the business might not make it. One night while playing with my friend’s new Android phone, I realized that times had changed; I no longer needed to sell hardware! Smart phones now had all the technology I needed to provide the same teen safe driving service but without selling my own hardware!

I immediately started researching platforms and found Android OS to be the best for the first version of Speedbump – The Teen Driving Safety App.

The app launched on Android phones at the beginning of summer 2011 (just as I graduated from college) and the iPhone version of Speedbump will be available in early 2012. Speedbump now has more users than Speed-Demon ever did, in less than a quarter of the time! Parents have continued to tell me how much they love Speedbump for its ability to make their teens safer drivers. As an added bonus, they also mention that their teens have become safer passengers, often telling their friends to slow down because of Speedbump reporting. Speedbump is bringing parents and teens together to encourage driving safety and I couldn’t be happier. I’d like to offer any readers of this article a Free 1 Month Trial by using the promo code “PSafety” to sign up at www.SpeedbumpGPS.com. In addition, it would be great to hear any comments or suggestions you may have for me! Please reach out to me on Twitter @SpeedbumpGPS or on Facebook: Speedbump.

HEALTHFUL HINTS

1. Safe driving is green driving. By following the posted speed limits, you can save a lot at the pump!
2. Help your teen drive safely:
   • Know the facts/risks – and talk to your child EARLY. Car crashes are the number one killer of teens in the United States – more than cancer, homicide and suicide combined. And risk begins to increase as young as age 12 – because young teens are also at risk as passengers of cars driven by older teen drivers (AAA gives a good overview).
   • Use a parent-teen driving contract (click here for example).
   • Always remind your teens to wear their seatbelts.
3. Set a good example for your teens with your own driving! According to AAA, good driving habits include:
   • Always wear your safety belt.
   • Obey traffic laws.
   • Do not use a cell phone while driving.
   • Watch your speed.
   • Don’t tailgate.
   • Use your turn signals.
   • Don’t drive when angry or tired.

Should You Let Your Teens Blog?

Last updated on March 3rd, 2018 at 11:34 am

Millions of blogs already exist, and thousands more appear each day. So if your teens are interested in joining the blogosphere, don’t be surprised.

While you don’t want to stifle their creative freedom, it’s perfectly natural to be a bit concerned about what they’re going to be writing about — especially if they have a tendency to overshare. And having been in media for a long time, I can tell you there’s a fine line between recounting the innocent details of your day to posting the kind of information that can compromise their privacy — and yours.

If your teens decide they want to start a blog, here’s my advice:

1. Set up some ground rules. Do this before they write their first post. Start off by asking them what their theme is going to be. Do they love to cook and want to share recipes? Will it be more of a diary of random thoughts and feelings? Will they be blogging about trying to reach a specific goal?

2. Agree on what won’t be written about. Once you know what their angle is, you can help them decide which topics and details are off-limits.

3. Safeguard contact info. Also, be sure to caution them against giving away any personal biographical information, like their date of birth, address and phone number.

4. Find out how they’ll be publicizing the blog. Will they post it on Facebook? Email it to a handful of friends? With this information, you’ll be setting up ground rules with their audience in mind.

Once you have a better understanding of their intentions, you’ll feel better about their decision to become bloggers. And you might even become their biggest follower.

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