According to NHTSA, the age group with the greatest proportion of distracted drivers falls into the under-20 age group. In 2009, 16% of all drivers younger than 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported to have been distracted while driving.

A 2010 study conducted by AAA and Seventeen Magazine reveals that teens admit to sending a monthly average of 23 texts each month while driving. And of course, 35% of those teens who drive while distracted don't think they'll get hurt.

Because educating young teens about safe driving is a high priority, right now there are two distracted driving scholarship programs accepting video entries to raise awareness in this age group, with prizes to the winning entries that can be worth thousands of dollars!

Project Yellow Light

Project Yellow Light has created a scholarship program in which high school and college students can create a video to encourage their friends to avoid distracted driving.  Now in its third year, the scholarship honors the memory of 16-year-old Hunter Garner, who died in a car crash in 2007.

Applicants have one clear mission: create a 25- or 55-second video to persuade their peers to develop and embrace safe driving habits.

For both the high school and college contests, the first-place winner will receive a scholarship in the amount of $5,000, each second-place finisher will receive $2,000, and each third-place finisher will receive $1,000. In addition to a scholarship, the winning video will be turned into an Ad Council PSA and will be distributed nationally to 1,600 television stations. The top two winners will also earn the opportunity to attend a one-day survival skills class at the Skip Barber Racing School.

Project Yellow Light/Hunter Garner Scholarship is in partnership with the Ad Council, Mazda, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and National Organizations for Youth Safety.

You can find examples of of previous entries into the contest at the Project Yellow Light YouTube channel. This year's entry period ends on March 17, 2014; find out more about the application process at Project Yellow Light.

Toyota Teen Driver

Because the first year after a teen gets their license will be one of the most dangerous years of their life, Toyota and Discovery Education have teamed up to create the Toyota Teen Driver program to help them avoid distractions and stay safe while driving. The comprehensive program provides educational tools and resources for teens, parents, and educators to help young drivers be safer during their first year behind the wheel.

Toyota’s program also includes a video contest that encourages students who are enrolled in 9th through 12th grade and who are at least 13 years old to create a video that would encourage their friends to drive safely and think twice about making bad decisions behind the wheel. The video must be between 60 and 90 seconds, and be uploaded it to YouTube by Thursday March 13th.

The first-place winner will receive $15,000 and the chance to work with a Discovery film crew to reshoot their video into a TV-ready PSA! The second-place winner will receive $10,000 and a behind-the-scenes trip for two to a Discovery Channel Velocity show. The third-place winner receives $7,500.

The top ten finalists will be added to an online poll for the public to determine the Top 3 Winners. The winners will be announced in May 2014. You can see examples of previous winners in the contest archive. Get complete rules at ToyotaTeenDriver.com

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It’s time for an important reminder: Just put your cell phone down, and stop texting while driving.

I've been scolded about it by friends who have seen my in-car tweets complaining about congested traffic and bad drivers, and my response has usually been, "Sitting stopped in bumper-to-bumper traffic can hardly be considered 'driving.' "

The Fact Is:
If you're behind the wheel and the engine is running and the transmission is in gear, you're driving.
That includes stopped at red lights, idling in congested traffic, or just waiting at the railroad crossing counting train cars. You're still "driving."

Graco is conducting a recall on the harness buckles used on all toddler convertible car seats and harnessed booster seats manufactured from 2009 to July 2013.

Don’t panic: The seats themselves are not unsafe, the problem is with the harness buckles. Graco says that food and dried liquids can make some harness buckles progressively more difficult to open over time or become stuck in the latched position. This is a voluntary recall and no injuries have occurred.

It becomes an automotive catastrophe when a 40-foot-wide sinkhole opens up beneath a museum and swallows eight Corvettes. Eight collectible and rare Corvettes.

According to CNN.com, the vintage Corvettes fell into a sinkhole that opened up beneath the Skydome section of the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky early this morning.

If you’ve got kids, this secret safety feature is one every parent should know about: Officially called the “second-row passenger belt reminder light,” this feature found in the Cadillac SRX tells the driver which rear seat belts are occupied and safely belted when the vehicle is moving; this means you can tell if your wiggly kidlet has unbuckled his seat belt without taking your eyes off the road to look.

Unofficially, it's like having eyes in the back of your head, Mom. It's an awesome safety feature, but not many parents know to look for it when shopping for a family car.

The winter holiday season has one of the highest incidences of drunk driving fatalities, so AskPatty joins with the Ad Council and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to remind our readers about the cost of drunk or buzzed driving.

Click to watch our video about the dangers of #BuzzedDriving

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and NHTSA Administrator David Strickland have kicked off the annual "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over" winter holiday crackdown on drunk and drugged driving. The annual campaign was launched last week with support from local law enforcement, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), and the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA). The crackdown runs from now until January 1, 2014, and is supported by $7.5 million in national advertising in TV and radio advertising featuring NHTSA's "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over" campaign.

It’s that time of year: late fall and early winter are the peak times to beware of deer in the roadway, and we know you don’t want to hit one.

Deer are abundant in the fall and winter because it's both hunting and mating seasons when deer are more likely to roam outside their normal territory. Pay attention to "deer crossing" signs--they’re usually installed in areas where deer are already known to be abundant. Scan down the road and off to each side and pay particular attention at dusk and dawn, when such animals as deer, elk, and moose usually venture out to eat. If you’re driving at night, watch for pairs of small glowing lights on the side of the road that could be animal eyeballs reflecting the light from your headlights. 

As Teen Driver Safety Week comes to a close, I remember clearly how afraid I was the first time I handed my newly licensed teenaged son the keys to the car for his first solo drive.

I wasn’t afraid because I thought he was an unsafe driver; in fact, he was a careful driver who had received good instruction and lots of practice time behind the wheel. I was afraid because so much of being a “good” driver comes with experience -- which then teaches how to pay attention and be prepared for all the things that can be caused by other drivers -- and he didn’t have that experience yet. During their first months of licensure, teens have a particularly high risk of accidents. Five years later, much to my relief, he remains ticket- and crash-free.

For 364 days each year, we teach our children not to take candy from strangers. But on Halloween, collecting candy from strangers is the number one goal. While most parents are careful to inspect the sweet hoard for signs of malevolent tampering, many public servants and safety organizations agree that it’s more important to make safe lighting the primary concern on Halloween night.

Most of us love to score a good Groupon deal, and now there's a great reason to love Groupon even more: Make a donation to KidsAndCars.org through the Groupon website before Wednesday September 26, 2013, and for every $10 tax-deductible donation, KidsAndCars.org will receive an additional $20 from matching sponsors.

That means each $10 Groupon purchased actually equals a $30 donation to KidsAndCars.org!!
Donate now at:  groupon.com/deals/kidsandcars-org 

Every year, thousands of children are hurt or die because a driver moving very slowly in reverse did not see them. The dollars raised by KidsAndCars.org will be used to provide safety professionals with BlindZone Education Kits that help drivers become aware of exactly how large and dangerous the blindzone behind their vehicle is and what they can do to eliminate this danger.