As graduation season gets underway in the region, there will be endless opportunities to celebrate the end of a school year and the Class of 2010.
With several high schools in the area there will be hundreds of seniors gearing up to celebrate the end of their high school years as they look forward to setting their course for the future.
Always at this time of year there is a major push to educate young drivers about the dangers of drinking and driving but equally as dangerous are doing drugs and then driving, getting behind the wheel while too tired to be driving or texting or talking on cell phones while driving. Local law enforcement have even made May a month to focus on young drivers.
Between 2004 and 2008, 257 young drivers between the ages of 14 and 24 were killed and 18,174 young drivers were injured in collisions. Although young drivers represent only a small percentage of the province’s licensed drivers, they have the highest casualty collision rates.
While it is tempting for adults to recall their own high school glory days in full detail and excuse away their own teenage adventures, adults have a responsibility to set a good example for the younger generation.
The old, “Do what a say, not what I do,” does not hold water.
Young adults are always eager to follow in the footsteps of role models, be they negative or positive.
Our society today is so technologically advanced, teenagers can literally tune out the real world and get caught up in a cyber world.
Now more than ever they need positive role models they can relate to in the actual world.
Every time an adult drives in an unsafe manner or gets behind the wheel when they have had too much to drink, they are sending out the wrong message to their younger counterparts.
Even with something as common place as seatbelt use the younger drivers will follow the example of the adults in their lives.
Adults who think they are too busy to follow the rules of the road are not only setting a bad example for the younger generation, they are also setting up younger drivers with bad habits. These are bad habits which could, not only get them in trouble with the law, could ultimately lead them to situations resulting in injury or death.
Our youth need positive examples to pattern their lives after.