The Crittenden Automotive Library

Race-car-driving teens talk about safety

Race-car-driving teens talk about safety

Fast Lane
U.S. Department of Transportation
October 19, 2012

Our National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is recognizing National Teen Driver Safety Week with three very personal stories from teen drivers who happen to share a unique occupation. My thanks to these special young men for stepping up and speaking out for safe driving.

Why now? Why Texting?
by Parker Nicklin, teen, race-car driver, student, activist

I was taking a road trip to Willow Spring Raceway with my dad for a weekend of testing our race cars. On this simple trip my life changed forever. I got into a bumper-to-bumper accident just by looking down to change the radio station. Of course me being a teen I thought this would never happen to me, and I was an “invincible a race car driver with quick reflexes.” In that few seconds, my life had changed.

About 2 weeks after the accident I went to traffic court to get this resolved and hoped that the ticket would just be lowered to a parking ticket… It didn’t happen like that.

Read Parker's complete story...

Safe driving matters
by Zach Veach, teen, race-car driver, student, activist for road safety, education, safe online behavior

In a neighboring town to mine, a girl my age was killed when she was texting behind the wheel and pulled out in front of a tractor-trailer.

I don't know about you, but I come from a really small town in rural Ohio. And when something tragic like that happens to someone in our area, it touches us all. I was really bothered by this accident and knew I had to do something to keep it from happening again.

Read Zach's complete story...

I knew I could do something
by Tristan Nunez, teen, race-car driver, student, safety advocate

There are a lot of things kids my age can get into --from drugs, alcohol, and sex, to making poor decisions while driving, to ditching homework and classes. There’s been a lot of discussion about these topics, but for me, there hasn’t been enough about distracted driving.

While riding with my mom one day, we nearly ran into the back of someone because my mom was texting and driving. At the time, all I could think of was how just a day earlier, we had the same near-accident experience.

Read Tristan's complete story...

Many thanks to the Mazda Motorsports Racing Ladder team for supporting our efforts to end distracted driving. To learn more about the dangers of distracted driving and what you can do to help us end this deadly epidemic, visit distraction.gov.