Lee Hoffoss Injury Lawyers Safe Driver Scholarship Winner
We are excited to announce the winner of the first annual Lee Hoffoss Injury Lawyers Safe Driver Scholarship: Madison Theriot!
Madison’s passion for maintaining safe streets was immediately apparent in her video. The video explained Madison’s enthusiasm for raising awareness about the dangers of distracted driving in a creative, thoughtful manner.
Join us in congratulating Madison! We are proud to help a young member of the Lake Charles community to continue her dreams of pursuing an education in nursing.
Here are a few words Madison had to say about receiving the scholarship:
It means so much to me to win this scholarship. When I first heard about the scholarship, and what it stood for, I knew I had to apply. I’ve seen people that I am close to be affected personally by distracted driving. Some have been in awful accidents because of distracted drivers, and others have been the cause. Distracted driving is something that I do not stand for and try to be a better influence for my friends and family. So, to win this scholarship means I’ve gone one step further in raising awareness and the prevention of distracted driving!
Finally, thank you to all our applicants. Please check back to apply again next year.
Watch Madison’s Winning Video Below:
Distracted driving is caused when the attention of the driver is diverted from driving an automobile to other events. These distractions can range from being under the influence of alcohol, texting, or even carrying irresponsible passengers. No matter what the cause of the distraction is, driving with one present is dangerous for yourself and other citizens on the road. Distracted driving is responsible for the majority of the automobile crashes in the U.S.
There are approximately 2.5 million people in the U.S. That are involved in accidents each year. Of these people, about 1.6 million have a cell phone that was being used during the crash. To put this in one number, 64% of accidents in the United States involved a distracted driver. With the increasing numbers of distracted drivers, our roads are no longer safe… for anyone.
To me, these facts are almost intimidating enough to completely stay off the roads. Why would I want to put myself in danger because others do not know how to practice safe driving? These drivers are putting other people’s lives at risk every time they turn on a vehicle, as well as their own. This is an enormous issue; however, it can quite easily be solved with multiple techniques.
Most cars nowadays have programs that can call, send texts, and even skip songs in your music library. All it takes is 15 minutes to set it up and then you’ll be cutting out a large possibility of driving while being distracted and even save lives. I’ve helped many of my friends and family program their vehicles, which means you can do it too. Your car doesn’t have these fancy technological advances? You can still take precautions to stop distracted driving. You can let your friends and family know we are on the road and will pick up the conversation later, and then put your phone on do not disturb. Worried that your parents will try to reach you during an emergency? Put them on your favorites list on your phone and you will be able to answer the call if it’s of utter importance.
That’s three different ways you can be driving without the distractions. Driving while being distracted isn’t worth the risk of losing the lives of other people or yourself. Taking a little bit of time out of your day to make sure you won’t be tempted to drive distracted is a small step to take towards making a big difference in the distracted driving rates.