New driver August Becker leaves his cellphone alone every time he drives.
"You just shouldn't text and drive, it's a stupid thing to do. I put my cellphone in my pocket where I can't get at it to make sure it doesn't come out," said Becker, 16, who received his driver's licence two months ago.
National Teen Driver Safety Week, Oct. 19 - 25, aims to help more teens think like Becker.
Organized by Parachute Canada, a national injury prevention organization, the week focuses on increasing teen driver safety awareness, safe driving choices and habits. That includes things like putting away cellphones, driving sober, wearing seatbelts and not speeding.
All good habits that Becker is glad he adopted, and encourages friends and family to follow - even though he admits his generation has a texting addiction and one of his friends likes to speed.
"If you're not a safe driver, you could hurt other people, mess up someone else's car or your own car - both would be expensive. Or you could get hurt," said Becker.
Becker's concerns are valid. Teen drivers have higher fatality, injury and collision rates. Last year, 15 drivers 19 years old and younger died in collisions in Saskatchewan.
To give teens some extra incentive to take part in the promotional week, SGI is offering a draw to win one of three $200 VISA gift cards as part of the week-long campaign.
Teens ages 15 to 19 can enter to win by posting their pledge to drive safely using the #mysafedrivingpledge hashtag on: SGI's Facebook page timeline, Twitter mentioning @SGItweets, or Instagram mentioning @sgiphotos during National Teen Driver Safety Week (October 19 to 25). The draw will be made on Oct. 28, 2014.
For more information about the contest rules and National Teen Driver Safety Week, visit www.sgi.sk.ca/teendrivers. For more information on Parachute Canada, visit www.parachutecanada.org.
