Parents and faculty at New Canaan High School on Wednesday evening will host an event that addresses what local police call an “extremely important” matter for the community.
“Dangers of Distracted Driving” is open to student and parents, and will be held at 7 p.m. in the Wagner Room of New Canaan High School.
Sgt. Carol Ogrinc, public information officer of the New Canaan Police Department, said distracted driving is prevalent here as it is “in every town.”
“Our officers are continually enforcing traffic laws day to day,” Ogrinc said. “Our main goal is to keep our community safe whether it’s stopping a motorist or speaking at teen driving forums.”
Education about the potentially fatal dangers of distracted driving is critical, Ogrinc told NewCanaanite.com.
“Adults and teen drivers need to know distracted driving can kill and that your attention must be 100 percent on the road,” she said, adding: “Texting is one of the more dangerous distractions while driving because it requires a person’s visual attention. They take their eyes off the road. They take their hand [or hands] off the steering wheel. They are taking their mind off the road and surroundings.”
Wednesday’s event, put on by the New Canaan High School Parents-Faculty Association, will feature speaker Jacy Good.
Good—who served as a guest speaker at the high school two years ago, during a driving forum that Ogrinc had organized—lost both parents and was seriously injured herself in a car crash caused by a distracted driver, the PFA said in a bulletin.
“Come hear her story and how she has worked tirelessly to educate the country about the dangers of cell phone use behind the wheel,” the PFA said. “Juniors and seniors will hear her speak during a school assembly earlier in the day.”
Ogrinc said that a motor vehicle operator must be engaged in distracted behavior as well as committing a separate motor vehicle violation to get a ticket.
“An example would be someone eating and while driving his or her vehicle goes over the double yellow line or too far to the right,” she said.
If charged with 14-296aa(i), the first offense is a $150 fine, second offense is $300, third offense is $500, Ogrinc said. If charged while driving in a construction zone, the fines are doubled, she said.