FAST FACTS:
danya.bacchus@wreg.com
(Cordova, TN 10/22/2009) Driving, especially fast, is something NASCAR star Kyle Petty knows all about.
Thursday, he wasn't sharing stories about his life on the track to Mid-South high school students. Instead, Petty and other NASCAR drivers were talking distractions.
"What we do for a living is with a car but we play with a car. When you drive a car on the highway it can be catastrophic and its life or death and you need to pay attention all the time," said Petty.
Driving while distracted is now the cause of four out of five car accidents according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Texting while driving is causing even good drivers to become victims.
"Unfortunately, I have. It's almost cost me a vehicle or two. Almost a crash. So I've really slacked off doing that and now that we're doing things like this it makes you think twice before doing it," said NASCAR Nationwide Series Driver Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
To show teens how important it is to stay focused on the road and not things like, cell phones, the Nationwide Insurance event put teens to the test a driving simulator showed them just how easy it is to get distracted.
"I started to text and I ended up on a whole different screen on my phone. I was hitting walls. I was in the grass. I was spinning out it was really scary," said St. Benedict at Auburndale student Cody Thayer.
"You see people in the car texting. You see truck drivers, bus drivers, young people, old people. It's not just these kids problems. It's not a kid problem, it's a universal problem," said Petty
- Kyle Petty Talks Driving Distractions
- NASCAR Nationwide Series Drivers Visit High Schools
- Emphasizes Dangers of Texting and Driving
danya.bacchus@wreg.com
(Cordova, TN 10/22/2009) Driving, especially fast, is something NASCAR star Kyle Petty knows all about.
Thursday, he wasn't sharing stories about his life on the track to Mid-South high school students. Instead, Petty and other NASCAR drivers were talking distractions.
"What we do for a living is with a car but we play with a car. When you drive a car on the highway it can be catastrophic and its life or death and you need to pay attention all the time," said Petty.
Driving while distracted is now the cause of four out of five car accidents according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Texting while driving is causing even good drivers to become victims.
"Unfortunately, I have. It's almost cost me a vehicle or two. Almost a crash. So I've really slacked off doing that and now that we're doing things like this it makes you think twice before doing it," said NASCAR Nationwide Series Driver Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
To show teens how important it is to stay focused on the road and not things like, cell phones, the Nationwide Insurance event put teens to the test a driving simulator showed them just how easy it is to get distracted.
"I started to text and I ended up on a whole different screen on my phone. I was hitting walls. I was in the grass. I was spinning out it was really scary," said St. Benedict at Auburndale student Cody Thayer.
"You see people in the car texting. You see truck drivers, bus drivers, young people, old people. It's not just these kids problems. It's not a kid problem, it's a universal problem," said Petty
