and now, stay two times and you can earn a free night. book now at choicehotels.com good sunday morning. i'm pat lawson muse. welcome to "viewpoint." march is national driving awareness month. based on the statistics, it's a good month to focus on the problem of distracted teen driving. the national highway traffic safety highway administration says motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death for people between 15 and 20 years of age. every year, some 3,000 teenagers die on our highways. another 300,000 suffer severe injuries and lifelong disabilities. the national safety council and the centers for disease control call it a national health crisis. and so do our guests this morning. robin thompson is founder and ceo of

education known as the art of driving. brian thompson is a consultant and janene martin joins us. >> thank you for having us. >> you founded art in memory of your 16-year-old daughter, ashley who died in 2003. tell us what happened to her. >> it was a sunny june afternoon, about 2:00, ashley was at home and she was returning to her high school. and she was on a road that she traveled every day, that she knew well. she was about three blocks from the home. and for some reason that we're still not sure of, she overcorrected and when she overcorrected she put the car into a skid and she hit a tree and was killed instantly. the police feel that something or someone ran in front of her and caused her to make that sudden swerve. ashley's crash and that's what i

accidents, is very textbook. majority of teen fatalities are what we call off the road. the teen will overcorrect, put the car into a skid and hit a hard object. and, again, ashley was only three blocks from the phone. no cell phone used. no other passengers in the car to distract her. not under the influence. and i found her on my way home from work that day. i was coming up the road in burke and came upon the accident scene. and it was at that time i struggled with trying to figure out how something like this could happen to a teen who was, for all intent and purposes very grounded, you know, honor student, competitive athlete. what quickly learned was those things have nothing to do with it. most people have perceptions that this happens to careless reckless teens and that's --

her. >> it wasn't the case. frequently, it's not the case. it's not so much that they're wreckless, it's that they truly don't perceive dangers. our teens don't perceive the risks and dangers. it's not so much purposeful on their part. they truly don't perceive the risk and danger. so within months of ashley's crash, i began talking to students at her high school. and based on their response, i knew i had to reach more teens. >> so was this sort of therapeutic for you? >> you know, a lot of people have asked me that. i think initially it was. but it isn't easy retelling the story over and over again. >> sure. >> it truly isn't. but when i see the response from teens and i see the response from parents when i speak to parent groups, and i know that i'm making an

making a difference and along with ashley's inspiration, that's what keeps me moving forward. >> brian, she was your sister. >> yes. >> so it must have been pretty tough for you. >> it was. it's never easy seeing anyone you care and love. especially a sibling. it's a different kind of loss. but i was, you know, very proud of what my mom turned around and did in the wake of that. and very proud of the fact that the art of driving kind of came out of that. and has helped so many teens and parents. not go through the same thing and to kind of get the message out there that this is a major problem, major health epidemic we need to fix. >> janene, it's a problem not only teens are dealing with, distracted driving is a big issue for all of us. you volunteer with your organization.

with art, what you've learnled what you've observed. >> i think one of the main things i learned working with robin it wasn't just an issue when kids start to turn 15, 16, that we need to start paying attention to safe driving. it's actually something you want to create this culture of safe driving that starts all the way down when they're 5 years old. statistics i learned from robin, that she can put better than i could, that's actually the leading cause of death for children of that age is car crash. i think most people would think it's drownings or, you know, something along those lines and not actually a car accident. >> children that young. passengers in the car. >> for decades, for our 15 year olds to 20 year olds for decades it's been the leading cause of death. the cdc released latest statistics that tell us it's the leading cause of death

so we find it necessary to reach younger chirn eer children, par younger children. we went into an elementary school and had them do valentine's projects. they put them in the car and put the seat belt on and said i love you. and getting parents to understand that they need to role model at a very early age. they may be in the back seat in the car seat, but they're paying attention. that's one thing our 5k did, our survive to 5 5k. we had parents with children and toddlers. the mother came to me and said, i didn't know i had to think about this yet. >> we'll continue or talk about the art of driving and distracted driving when we continue our program.

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welcome back. we're talking about distracted driving in teens. we were just talking, picking up on the point you made before the break about driving, good driving training actually starting at a very early age. most people don't think of, you know, 5-year-olds as being even interested in cars, driving cars. but the truth of the matter is, they do get interested. >> they're watching. >> they're watching what you're doing. >> they're watching what you're doing. they're watching how you handle the road. if you're screaming at the driver next to you. if you're drinking a latte, if you're on the phone, if you're being aggressive. they pick up on this. that's why when we work with parents, we help them understand that role modeling is so important. and it needs to start at a very young age. not once they have a driving permit in their hands. >> janene, you were just, during the break, talking about how -- the way the media portrays driving as being one of the factors here. >> yes, because if you think

fast and furious franchise. it's how actor paul walker actually died was a car crash where speed was involved. or car commercials where it's all about how fast it is. there was a hiyandai commercial that showed a little girl driving aggressively in the back seat and the dad doing doughnuts in the parking lot and he's like, do you want to do it again, and she's like, yeah. what are you teaching? using the car to do dangerous things. that's not what we want to portray. >> we glamourize cars. as she talks about the car commercials with very young sexually dressed women and the way the cars look so sleek and the commercial looks like it has nothing to do with the car until we see the car at the end. >> absolutely. >> but kids are watching all of this. brian, the nna

crisis, are we treating distracted driving and the issue, the problem of teens dying and being maimed on the road, are we treating it like it's a national health crisis? >> i don't think so. i think there's definitely a movement to try to get there. right people are trying to make that known. think that, you know, the studies are coming out time and time again. but i don't -- i don't see it being done that way. i do see what, you know, we're doing with the driving, you know, robin could speak more to that in terms of getting in with school nurses and doctors. >> you know, this is a public health crisis. and if we approach it as such and if we use the public health model, i think we'd make better leadway. for example, let's look at what happened with smoking. smoking was a public health epidemic. and i'm of the generation where

tv. very similar to the automotive industry advertisements. it was glamourized, sexualized. then we realized what a health risk it was. we realized it was not only a health risk to the person but to bystanders. that changed. the advertising, well, it vanished. we don't have the advertising anymore. and we changed perceptions and attitudes of the population. that's what needs to happen with driving. we need to change attitudes, perceptions. >> there are so many reminders of the dangers out there, of the risks of driving. there are news stories. there are awareness campaigns. some 48 states in the district have now bann ened texting and driving. and many have cracked down on the use of cell phones behind the wheel. are we not getting the message? >> i don't think so. i think it's a great first step. i thihe

are fantastic and first step. i think one of the problems that we still have though is the enforcement. there's not enough ability to enforce it. some of those violations aren't primary offenses. meaning that the police aren't able to pull the person over for texting or being on the phone. that it's simply a secondary offense. if they're pulled over for something else, they ecan be ticketed for that. how do you know if someone's actually texting in the car? they might be looking down for only a few seconds. but i think one of the things that i know we talk about is, you know, i think the average time that someone would be looking at the phone texting is about five seconds. if you're traveling 55 miles an hour on the road which i think is the general speed limit. the highways around

throat ar metro area, you would travel a whole football field in five seconds. >> we'll continue right after this. check out the fresh new look on mcdonald's mcpick 2 menu! try a flaky filet-o-fish made with sustainably sourced fish, a big mac made with 100% beef, chicken mcnuggets made with white meat, or a quarter pounder with cheese seared on the grill. pick any 2 for $5 bucks. ♪ bada ba ba ba thank you so much. did you say honey? hey, try some? mmm that is tasty. is it real? of course... are you? nope animated you know i'm always looking for real honey for honey nut cheerios well you've come to the right place. great, mind if i have another taste? not at all mmm you're all right bud? never better i don't know if he likes that. yeah

i'll see you at home. the egg mcmuffin. made with a fresh cracked egg and real butter. only at mcdonald's. i'm lovin it. welcome back. we are talking with art, the art of driving this morning. the foundation teaches youngsters, teenagers and their parents about the risks. one of the things you do is help them recognize the risks, correct? >> we do. the art of driving which stands for awareness, responsibility and training, as well as ashley renee thompson, we are an outreach program. the art of driving is the educational outreach program. we go into schools, youth groups, ptas,

others, and we help teens and parents and the community understand the very unique risks that our teen drivers face and how to effectively minimize those risks. >> talk about some of the uniqueness of the risks for teens. obviously you're dealing with young people who are inexperienced. and who don't understand that driving isn't glamorous, it's very dangerous. >> right. well, i think the risks exist for every driver. i think within the realm of distracted driving, one of the things that teens have a harder obstacle to get over is the fact the brain hasn't fully developed. it's the same thing with drinking. when it comes to driving, there are decisions -- the process center in the brain hasn't fully developed. that's something that robin has focused on

>> they're more easily distracted than an older driver. they don't recognize hazards as being hazard does. all of that is lack to development in the frontal cortex. >> can we throw into the mix the obsession teens and adults have with social media, cell phones, janene. >> i travel a lot for my own job. i'll be driving next to somebody and they're doing something they shouldn't be doing and i look over and sure enough they're on their phone and that's an adult. for a kid who hasn't quite mastered, you know, where everything is in the car, feels as comfortable as an adult does, it just confounds the issue even more. >> so driving is riskier i think today than it was when i learned to drive in high school, when there was nothing else to distract me other than my imagination and my excitement about being behind the wheel and the feeling of being independent, being able to take myself where wanted to go and sort of

>> certainly is. for art, it's even manifested more so for the teen. because they're not ready to take on those added distractions and risks at this point, again, because of brain development. what i have found is when working with teens and parents, once they understand why they're at risk and what's behind this, they can't recognize hazards. parents are more willing to monitor and restrict their teens driving. teens are more willing to accept those restrictions that parents can then place on them to keep them safe during that very critical time. let's get you through that learning curve a bit. by monitoring, restricting. not giving them access to their own vehicle. not letting them drive at night without supervised driving. no passengers in the car. no teen passengers in the car. there's things we can put in place to keep them

and getting them more supervitzed driving time, we've really stressed that. >>ou also hold classes. you brought palmlets here. you use teens to teach teens. tell us about those parts of your program. >> absolutely so. what that is, it's our teen task force. what that is, we go into schools and set up peer to peer kind of centers, where teens support teens. what that means is they take the pledge to be safer drivers and safer passengers. it's one thing to have the driver on their phone checking facebook and saying hey, so-and-so is talking about this. as a driver, that's distracting. it's also distracting to have your friend sitting next to you telling you that or people in the back seat telling you that so we try to install and get the teens to support one another. to say no, that's not safe, we shouldn't be doing that. we need to let the driver focus on the road. >> you got a bunch of steps in

they read this. and then do they actually get to practice it? >> what they do is -- it runs like a club would run in a high school. so it's peer led, peer to peer. they do activities every month. they come up with their own ideas as to how they're going to spread the word about surviving the five. when we talk about surviving the five, we're talking about the five leading causes of teen fatality, number one is experience, distraction, speed, lack of use of seat belts and drug and alcohol. in that order. so inexperience is the leading cause of teen fatalities. so we encourage teens to accept that experience. for example, virginia says they need 45 hours of behind the wheel. studies say they need 100 minimum. >> okay. we're talking about the art of driving and distracted driving. we'll be right back. stay with us.

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welcome back. janene, you are organizing a 5-k run for art of driving and it's one of your biggest fund-raisers. it's one of the ways you support your scholarship. >> definitely helping robin with it and it's just, you know, a great way to get the message out and then it does -- it's our primary way of being able to fund the scholarship that goes out every year. >> this june, we'll be giving our 13th memorial scholarship. we've helped 12 girls so far reach their college dream. and actually this year we've expanded it. it's opened to boys and girls. we expanded the school districts it's available to as well. fairfax county, or ling to arlis church and alexandria. >> anyone can apply? >> anyone can apply, that's right. >> brian, one of the things you do in your program is

you advocate for better training. which you say really hasn't evolved. along with all of our cars and our gadgets. >> right. i mean, i think, you know, studies have shown that increase behind the wheel for teen drivers and novembice drivers i going to be important down the road, in terms of getting the experience they need. the program that teens go true now is similar to what i went through and what others went through, 10, 15, 20 years ago. if you look at the cars we had at that time versus the cars we have today between gps, satellite radio, televisions in the back, which is fantastic but, i mean, it's all gadget driven, technology driven, more things to distract you. i think that's a huge problem. the number of things we have on the sides of our roads, the construction, especially in this area. >> you've discovered another big issue is for teens who are

teens. to speak up, when they feel their safety is at risk? >> robin had given me the statistic about 50% of teens feel they're in an unsafe situation will not speak up and say something like, hey, you're going too fast or this makes me feel uncomfortable because they don't want to be singled out. one of the good things about the task force is it sort of gives them communication skills to advocate for themselves. >> speak up, use your voice. >> all right, robin thompson, brian thompson, janene martin, thank you, thank you for the work you're doing. thank you. that is "viewpoint" this morning. i'm pat lawson muse. stay with us now, news 4 today begins.

. right now on "news 4 today," an inmate ties in police custody. what we're finding out as investigators piece together an emergency in northern virginia. a teenage boy gunned down at a d.c. metro station. new concerns about safety for riders as a family pleads for answers. three for three. bernie sanders pulls off win this is alaska, hawaii and washington state. the big challenges that lie ahead in the race for the white house. thank you for joining us this easter sunday. i'm meagan fitzgerald. >> and i'm chris gordon. now it will be a lot cooler today. and for those of you heading out to services, you may want