Learning to drive can be one of the most exciting times of a young person's life, but one mistake behind the wheel can also change that person's life forever.
Countless people have been affected by a traffic accident at some point in their life and can vouch for how important it is to learn the rules of the road and being safe behind the wheel. It all starts with teens that are just learning to drive.
Saturday, Sept. 15, State Farm debuted a teen driver safety program called Celebrate My Drive. Their goal is to promote teen driver safety.
"State Farm is the largest home to auto insurance company in the country and we are partnering with our agents who are business owners in the community," said State Farm spokesman Roszell Gadson.
"Obviously our agents see and insure new drivers on a daily basis and 16 is an exciting time for a teen, so teen driver safety has long been an important issue for us."
This event took place in 300 communities in the U.S. and Canada, but because it was held from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Sept. 15 during Auburn's first home football game, State Farm agents Kathy Powell and Scott Holley had to make last minutes changes to the Auburn location.
"We had to adjust to the timing of the event, so we moved our biggest focus to be at the Auburn High School football game, where we are handed out lots of goodies and Niffer's coupons for free food," Powell said. "The other agent and I worked together to see how we could still do something at the Niffer's location on Saturday."
The agents focused on the students and parents that came out to the High School game Friday, Sept. 14. There they set up a tent in partnership with the Lee County Sherriff 's Department and informed those who came by about the importance of driving safety.
"We were really excited to be a part of the game this weekend, it was Auburn High School's first football game and they were playing Smiths Station and both of those families are here in Lee County," Powell said.
As for Saturday's main event, agents Powell and Holley handed out cupcakes at Niffer's to people and answered questions about the Celebrate My Drive event.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, car crashes are the number one killer of American teens; and their first year out on the road is the most dangerous.
State Farm said they do not believe scaring teens into safe driving habits is the right way to go.
They tried out a concept of sharing information and enlightening the teenagers, as opposed to scaring them with violent and gory stats and videos.
Although some adjustments had to be made to the event at the Auburn location, Gadson said he believed the event was still a big success.
"As for the future of this event, we are very happy about how things are going so far," Gadson said. "I can't speak specifically as for what the plans are for next year, but I don't think it's going to go away anytime soon. I'm not getting that impression at all."
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