Cleveland, OH - Increased holiday traffic and distracted driving are a recipe for more crashes and increased injuries and deaths during this busy season. This makes it the perfect time for drivers in Cuyahoga County to see billboards with traffic safety messages created by a local teen with an important reminder for all drivers to close social media apps and focus on the road.
For the fourth year, State Farm has partnered with the UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital Injury Prevention Center and the Cuyahoga County Safe Communities Coalition to work with local high schools and engage student artists in a challenge to develop a lifesaving message.
Students were asked to create artwork for a billboard on a traffic safety topic of their choosing.
Artwork submissions were received from schools throughout Cuyahoga County, including Strongsville High School, St. Joseph Academy, Ignatius High School, John Hay School of Science and Medicine and Lakewood High School with messages that focused on distracted driving, impaired driving, drugged driving, and seat belt use.
The winning design was submitted by Lakewood High School student, Gabriela Bush. Bush chose “One Like Shouldn’t Cost a Life” as her traffic safety message.
When asked about her unique creative execution, Bush said, “When I was thinking about the design, I wanted to incorporate two things - a phone and car. I thought about how I could mix those ideas together, thus creating the design of a car crash hanging out of a phone screen.”
According to NHTSA, 10 percent of teen drivers killed in car crashes are distracted. In 2018, 3,166 people were killed in a crash involving a distracted driver.
But these days distracted driving is much more than just texting and driving. Bush explained, “Social media plays a huge role in the daily life of my generation, and with everyone having instant access to Instagram and TikTok on their phone, this can lead to distracted driving.”
Bush’s creation, One Like Shouldn’t Cost a Life, is currently being displayed on 3 poster billboards throughout Greater Cleveland and 2 digital billboards will go up later this month. She will receive $500 from State Farm for her winning design. Members of the Cuyahoga County Safe Communities Coalition and State Farm will virtually join her class next month to present her with the check for her winning design
Photos courtesy of State Farm and Rainbow's B&C Hospital
(Copyright, iHeartMedia, 2020)
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