(fast, upbeat music) - welcome to teen kids news. i'm veronique. let's begin with our top story for this week. - this report is brought to you by the national road safety foundation. car crashes are the number one killer of teens. that's why, every year, a special week is set aside in october called national teen driver safety week. philadelphia's famous simeone automotive museum hosted the city's first ever drive safe for pa event. - the museum is about sports racing cars.

you may have all heard of le mans, watkins glen, sebring, so these cars raced on the roads in the major races. - [nicole] dr. simeone says that all cars, not just race cars, need to be driven with care and safety. - [frederick] we all know they're beautiful and they've changed our lives. they've given us highways, shopping centers, allowed us to move. they can also give you a lot of harm. - and that brings us to why we're here. the national road safety foundation, partnered with ford driving skills for life to show teens just how dangerous it is to drive distracted or impaired. - i think i'm a pretty decent driver, yeah. - [nicole] alyssa volunteered to participate in the day's demonstrations. she's been driving for almost three years. - i definitely never drive distracted. i never drive impaired. - hey there, how are you? - hi. - i'm michelle gore. - hi, alyssa, nice to meet you. - come on, we're going to go out to work on distracted driving. we're with ford driving skills for life.

and we're going to go ahead and start driving through the serpentine. put your hand on the outside of the wheel, there you go. - [nicole] michelle had alyssa drive through the course, explaining that she needs to avoid hitting the cones and obey the traffic sign. - um, go ahead and grab your phone for me. tell me the address of the school. you can pick up a little bit of pace. - it's 340 north maple ave. - alright. alright, so you just passed the stop sign. without stopping. tell me the third song on your playlist. see the sign? so, we're looking up a playlist, right?

- yeah. - so we just went down the wrong way of a one-way street. - [nicole] the instructor then added another big distraction, loud music. - you got that one friend in the car that plays, heyyyy. - i think it was interesting that, she didn't even have me text anybody at all. - there's other things other than just texting and d drivin. we talk about scenarios like using maps, using the iphones for music, distractions of friends, talking to them in cars. - and i guess that's something that a lot of people don't think about as being distractions. - hi, i'm john shallenberger. - [nicole] next was driving impaired. - alrighty, what we're going to do, like i said, you're going to put these on, and these only affect your vision. you'll still have good judgment and you'll still have good reaction time. go ahead put your foot on the break. - oh, goodness. - okay, are you ready? - i guess so.

- alright, same course that you already went through once, so see how you-- - start? - yup. the goggles that she was driving was .12 to .15, which is one of the most common levels of blood alcohol level we see in impaired driving. we took her around the course. as you can see when she did it, she ran over a cone. - oh my god. - you took out a family. (laughs) that was a whole family right there. she ran stop signs. do you think you actually stopped at the stop sign? - did i? - you actually stopped past it. - the second experience, i was impaired while driving, so i was wearing the drunk goggles. i definitely did a lot worse with that. i definitely hit a lot of cones, i blew a stop sign, and i think if i had done both, if i was impaired and distracted at the same time, i couldn't even imagine doing something like that. so yeah, it was a really intense experience. - [nicole] alyssa has another intense experience ahead of her, a simulated sobriety test. we'll show you how that went when teen kids news continues.

- [announcer] closed captioning is brought to you by

- welcome back to teen kids news. we're continuing our report on driving safety. - it's an important subject to the national road safety foundation that we raise awareness about teen safe driving, because we're trying to do our best

to prevent teen deaths on the road. - [nicole] as part of the nrsf's drive safe for pa event, instructors from ford showed alyssa what it's like to drive distracted, as well as impaired. - and alyssa, so we did the driving part of it, now what we're going to do is show you the suit we have. it's a simulated impaired driving suit. - [nicole] the suit is designed to upset your balance, vision, and hearing, to simulate being under the influence. alyssa was now ready to be given a two-part sobriety test. - how're you doing? - fine, good, how are you? - good, my name is officer novak, i'm with the philadelphia police department, i'm going to conduct some tests on you, okay? - okay. - [nicole] the first test is called the walk and turn. - when i tell you to begin, what you're going to do, is you're going to take nine heel-to-toe steps down this line, you're going to slowly turn around, and you're going to take nine heel-to-toe steps back down the line. while you're doing this test, i want you to watch your feet, count your steps out loud, keep your arms by your side, and do not stop

this test til the test is complete. do you understand those directions? - yes. - okay, you may begin. - one, two, three, four, five... - she did not do very well at all. - it was awful. it was so bad. (laughs) - she was stepping off of the line. she was not able to connect her heel-to-toe steps. she was also off balance while she made her turn, and she was raising her arms to maintain that balance as well. - i think while i was doing it, i thought i was on the line, and then after the fact, when i took the goggles off, i was like 10 feet away from the line, so, yeah, i could have done better. - [nicole] next was the one-leg stand, which alyssa would have to hold for 30 seconds. - i want you to raise your right leg approximately six inches off the ground, keeping your toe pointed out and parallel to the ground. i want you to watch your raised foot, keeping your legs straight and your arms by your side, and i want you to count out loud in the following manner:

one thousand and one, one thousand and two, one thousand and three, and so on, until i tell you to stop. do you understand those directions? - yeah. - okay. alright, you may begin. - [alyssa] one thousand and one, one thousand and two, one thousand and three. - [mary] six inches, and watch your base foot. - [alyssa] one thousand and four, one thousand and five. - back up. - she made me count at the same time, and then i kind of forgot how to count. a few times, 'cause it was like a thousand and one, a thousand and two, instead of just one, two, three, and then i just kept mixing up the numbers, so it's hard to do both at the same time. - and during that time, she was asked to keep her hands down by her side. she was raising her hands to try and get balance, she had to keep putting her foot down to balance herself, and she was not able to actually even keep it at a six-inch level, and she was also looking up, trying to look for something to kind of balance herself as well. so those are all indicators of impairment. - one thousand and fourteen, one thousand and fifteen. - okay, you can stop. there's a lot of things that a person has to do

simultaneously while they're driving. once you start doing some kind of drugs, alcohol is a drug, alcohol and or any other kind of drugs, they're going to impair your ability. they're slowing you down, and you're not going to be making those decisions correctly. you're not going to be able to multitask. - [nicole] having to hold up your foot, count, and keep your balance may seem complicated, but that's the idea. - i'm on the national student leadership council for sadd, students against destructive decisions, so i think i knew the dangers of underage drinking and being impaired, but i've never i guess physically felt that, and i think that just put that into a new perspective for me, because i'm at least telling people my age, telling my peers, don't drink and drive, don't drink underage, but now i guess i have a different understanding of that now that i've done this. - and that's all part of the message the national road safety foundation wants to get across to young drivers. - when your eyes are off the road, your hands are not on the wheel, when you're impaired, or when you are distracted,

that you are not able to handle a two-ton vehicle. - for more information on nrsf programs, visit teenlane.org. for teen kids news, i'm nicole. - we've got to take a short break, but don't go away, because teen kids news will be right back.

some of the things we use every day. but there are simple ways even teens can help make a difference. eden tells us more. - while phones like this are dinosaurs here in america, in many parts of the world, they're in great demand. to explain why, we again turn to betsy teustch. she's an activist working to raise girls and women out of poverty. welcome back. - great to be here. i'm so happy to see you. - [eden] in your book, one hundred tools for empowering global women, you say old-style phones are in great demand. tell us why. - well, this is called a feature phone,

and some of you might remember them from when you were very young. and they are not what we now call a smart phone, but it's an entry-level phone that has really made the difference for so many people around the world in places where they never had phones to begin with. we call this a leapfrog technology, because people that never had landlines at all can go straight to a feature phone. there are more people in the world that have cell phones now than have toilets. so they're immensely popular in asia and africa and latin america, everywhere that people never had phones, they're really thrilled to have a cell phone, and they're very affordable now. - what's the most popular feature on these phones? - well, obviously calling people, when you never got to do that before, is very popular. these phones can send text messages, so that's

really important for two-way communication, but they have another tool built in, which is a flashlight. if you press it once, a beam, and if you press it twice, it stays on. so, if you can imagine, if you live in a place with no electricity, then having a flashlight is really great. this doesn't solve overhead problems, it doesn't give you light really to read by, but if you want to go places, it's great. - what are some other features that the phone has that some people might like? - phones have in some place, like kenya, they're very advanced, they call it mobile money, and people send money by text over their phones. they can deposit money when somebody gives it to them, it goes right into their account. they can pay for things. they can save a lot of time if they used to have to go stand in line somewhere, and they can send an electronic payment, they're really more advanced than we are in the united states in this area.

- wow. if viewers of teen kids news want to send women these phones, how can they? - well, you wouldn't send them these phones, you would send them the phones that are appropriate for the setting that they're in. you can collect old phones that are sitting around in your house, though, and there is an organization online called hopephones.org, and they will, you can send them all the phones that you collect of any type, and they will even pay for the shipping. they refurbish the phones that they can resell, and the ones that they can't resell, they recycle responsibly, and all the money that they raise goes to getting cell phones to health workers in the develop world in really poor countries so that they have cell phones to communicate information about people's health. - that's great, thanks betsy, we'll see you again soon. - take care, bye, bye.

- who'd have thought phones we throw away can be so valuable to people in other countries, especially girls. for teen kids news, i'm eden. - we always hear that eating fruit is important. that's because fruit has all sorts of good things, from vitamins to fiber, but keep in mind that all fruit isn't the same when it comes to sugar. for example, some fruits high in sugar are raisins, pomegranates, and bananas, while some fruits lower in sugar are raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, and watermelon. so rather than raisins, blueberries would be a healthier choice. guess you can say that by raisin your awareness of sugar, you're more likely to be berry healthy.

- i'll tell you how to get a jump on one of the most important essays you'll ever write, next on teen kids news.

here's christin. filling out college applications can be a real pain. ask anyone who's done it. most will also tell you that one of the hardest parts of the application is writing that personal essay. it requires that you look back on your life, and write about something that helped you become the person you are. problem is, that's not always easy to do. we've all had so many experiences over so many years. it often ends up being a case of not being able to remember any specific situations. so if you're at least a number of months away from applying to college, here's a tip. keep an essay journal. whenever you have a special, unusual, or valuable learning experience, make a note of it, not just the bare facts, but your feelings as well, and do it while those feelings are still fresh.

later on, when that day to fill out college applications finally rolls around, just pull out your essay journal. rather than having to wrack your brains, trying to remember events from years past, many of the most meaningful life experiences will be at your fingertips. i'm christin, here to help you make the grade. - every state has one, but most of us don't know why they look the way they do. here's eric with flag facts. - alaska's coastline is longer than all our other states' coastlines combined, so it would be reasonable to imagine that the state flag's blue background represents the ocean surrounding alaska. but actually, that field of blue represents the magnificent skies above alaska, as well as the state's official flower, the forget-me-not. the flag was designed by a teen who entered a contest in 1926.

- it was actually a 13-year-old orphan named benny benson who submitted the winning design. it was a territory-wide flag contest. alaska wasn't even a state yet, and they got all sorts of wonderful entries with polar bears and everything else you relate to alaska, eskimo images, those sorts of things. but he simply went with the big dipper, which is a part of ursa, the great bear, because he saw strength in the people of alaska, and then he also included the north star, because, whether it was his foresight, his hope, whatever it might be, he saw that someday alaska would be, or he hoped it would be, the northernmost of the united states. - his hope became a reality in 1959, when alaska became our 49th state. today, alaska remains our largest state geographically, but our smallest in terms of population. with flag facts, i'm eric.

- the new york yankees have had the best success of any major league baseball team, having won 27 world series titles. however, in second place is the st. louis cardinals, having won 11 world series titles. one of the original national league teams, the cardinals have had some excellent, excellent ball players, including great hitter stan musial, great pitcher bob gibson, and great fielder, ozzie smith. the cardinals are the only national league team with more than eight world series titles. i'm matt, with teen kids news.

it takes a lot of talent and hard work to make it to the finals, but for the winner, the work doesn't stop with getting the crown and sash. amelia tells us more. - [announcer] the winner of miss teen usa 2015 is...

louisiana! - 15-year-old katherine haik made history when she became the youngest contestant ever to win the title of miss teen usa. hi, katherine. - hi. - as miss teen usa, you're encouraged to be involved with a service project. tell us about yours. - right, well, even before my year as miss teen usa, i always had a passion of working with children with special needs, so that's really what i wanted to devote my year as miss teen usa to, and over this year i've worked with so many great organizations and causes dealing with special needs children. like the very special miss louisiana pageant, special olympics, and of course best buddies, all showing the special needs children how important they are, and even though they're different, they're capable of so many things. - what are some of the things that you can do with these special needs kids to do that? - right, well, when i worked with the special olympics, just showing them what they're capable of and how important they are, and then i went to ending the r-word rally at my old junior high school,

showing them, even though they're different, they're so very special and just different events with like the best buddies, and just different things like that. - you mentioned going to end the r-word rallies. can you tell us more about that? - right, well, it's a rally i went to at my old junior high school. their slogan is "spreading the word to end the word", the use of the word retarded, using to classify special needs children, and you know even though they're different, they're so very special. - you also worked with the uso. tell us about that. - yes, well, the uso's actually a non-profit organization for military members, and the part that i worked with is called operation that's my dress. it's for female members, spouses, and teenage daughters, and it's where they come and they get to watch a fashion show, and there they get to pick out a dress for the teens for prom or homecoming, and then for the members, maybe like a gala or a ball. and they get to get their hair, makeup done,

and just forget about all that and just have fun, and of course there's a beauty bar where they get to pick out makeup and just different, you know, girl stuff, and it's just a great organization, i've met so many wonderful people through it, and it's just great, i love working with them. i'm actually going and working with them again, so it'll be my fourth event with them this year. - sounds terrific. katherine, thank you so much for sharing all of this with us today. - thank you for having me. - you don't need to have a crown to do something good for your community. you just need to have the motivation to help others. for teen kids news, i'm amelia. - that wraps up our show, but we'll have more teen kids news for you next week, so make sure you tune in.

- [announcer] write to us at info@teenkidsnews.com.

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