ONTONAGON — Ontonagon High School is the only high school in the Upper Peninsula participating in the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning’s (OHSP) “Strive for a Safer Drive” (S4SD) program. The announcement comes from a release from communications specialist at Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning – Michigan State Police, Dennis Raymo.

The release states that of 38 high schools across Michigan in 2022, only Ontonagon is participating in the program. Since the 2011 creation of S4SD, 176 different Michigan high schools have participated in the program.

S4SD is a peer-led traffic safety campaign, designed to reduce the leading cause of death for teens –traffic crashes. The program encourages teens to talk with their peers and their communities about making safe-driving choices.

According to the Michigan State Police, motor vehicle crashes are the No. 1 cause of death for adolescents.

According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, three out of five accidental deaths for teens ages 16-20 are due to motor vehicle crashes. Teen drivers are four times more likely than adult drivers to be involved in a fatal motor vehicle crash, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

In 2020, there were 473,443 licensed drivers aged 15 to 20, which represented 6.7 percent of all Michigan drivers. However, they accounted for 7.3 percent of all traffic deaths in Michigan, with 51.9 percent of those deaths being the driver. Inexperience and risk-taking behavior are the primary factors contributing to teen-driver fatalities. These statistics are similar to national averages.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that the risk of motor vehicle crashes is higher among teens aged 16-19 than among any other age group. In fact, per mile driven, teen drivers in this age group are nearly three times as likely as drivers aged 20 or older to be in a fatal crash.

In 2019, almost 2,400 teens in the United States aged 13-19 were killed and about 258,000 were treated in emergency departments for injuries suffered in motor vehicle crashes, the CDC reported. That means that every day, about seven teens died due to motor vehicle crashes, and hundreds more were injured. In addition, motor vehicle crash deaths among teens 15-19 years of age resulted in about $4.8 billion in medical and work loss costs for crashes that occurred in 2018.

Now in its 11th year, S4SD is a public/private partnership between Ford Motor Company Fund’s Driving Skills for Life program and the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP).

Raymo’s release says that as part of the S4SD program, each school receives $1,000, which students use to create a teen-led campaign that will educate their classmates and community about various traffic safety topics, including speeding; seat belts; pedestrian, bicyclist and passenger safety; and impaired, distracted, nighttime and winter driving.

Schools will submit videos or PowerPoint presentations outlining their campaigns. The top-five schools judged to have winning campaigns will receive cash prizes ranging from $500 to $1,500.

It is presented by Ford Driving Skills for Life (DSFL) and the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP). All Michigan High Schools are eligible to apply.

The OHSP has partnered with the Transportation Improvement Association to coordinate activities of the S4SD program.