Teen activist works to end distracted driving

Laura Saldivar is a typical 16-year-old student, but her initiative and actions to help spread awareness on the issue of safe driving are anything but typical. The teen from Algonquin, Illinois, started getting involved six years ago at the ripe age of 10. She knows a bit about driver safety from her dad, since he is a driver education teacher, but the death of a cousin from distracted driving served as a inspiration to form a safe driving group at the local high school, long before she was a student there. The Jacobs Safety Initiative (named after her high school) began in 2006 and Saldivar hasn't stopped working for the cause since.

Her resume of initiatives is long and impressive--she currently serves on the Teen Distracted Driving Prevention Leadership Team for the National Organization for Youth Safety (NOYS), Students Against Destructive Decisions (SAAD) Illinois State Board, and Teen Safe Driving Coalition, among others. She has hosted leadership summits to help mobilize youth, worked with Allstate to get teens to thumbprint and pledge not to text and drive and implemented over fifty different projects and she isn't stopping there. In March, her team will host a teen safety driving conference with 400 youths as well as state police, U.S representatives, the Illinois Secretary of State and victims in attendance. She is also racking up frequent flier miles traveling around the country to speak at a variety of conferences.

She believes in the peer-to-peer model of awareness, because teens listen to their peers. She says they don't think it will happen to them, but it took losing people for them to understand.

She received her driver's license last April and always drives with her phone off and out of sight and doesn't believe in the new phenomenon of having a designated texter and her friends know never to text and drive with her in the car.

Laura is just one of a many teens around the country who are working in their communities and schools to bring awareness, change, and leadership to the issue of distracted driving. While teens have been targeted as being part of the problem, they can also be part of the solution and help saves lives.

For more on distracted driving, see our April issue report and our guide to distracted driving and teen safety.

--Liza Barth

See our related reports:
Distracted driving panelists discuss effective solutions
Secretary LaHood speaks at Consumer Reports, launches national campaign against distracted driving
Consumer Reports hosts teen distracted driving event
Families share the tragic impact of distracted driving, learn what you can do
U.S. Department of Transportation and Consumer Reports launch partnership to fight distracted driving
Grass roots organizations help educate parents and teens on distracted driving
Teen groups work to fight distraction