Warsaw Seniors Hope to Save Lives, Win Scholarship
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
By encouraging people not to text while driving, Warsaw Community High School seniors Hannah Kline and Marcos Navarro hope to not only save lives, but also win $5,000 scholarships through a state contest. Kline knows firsthand the dangers of distracted drivers, as her family was involved in an accident caused by one. “What made me more interested in doing (the contest) was four years ago my family got hit by a drunk driver who was also texting while driving. We were fine, but their car flipped twice in the air, but they were fine. They didn’t get hurt at all,” she said. Kline and Navarro are participating in the “Drive Now – TXT L8R” social media contest sponsored by the Indiana Department of Labor, State Police, Criminal Justice Institute, Bureau of Motor Vehicles and Department of Transportation, according to the website IN.gov “In recognition of April as Distracted Driving Awareness Month, several $5,000 awards will be given to students who create the most creative and popular posts promoting the campaign on the social media websites Twitter, Instagram and Vine,” according to the Indiana Economic Digest website. “There will be both high school and college student winners. Entries have to be posted (in April) and use the hashtag #TXTL8RIN, modern shorthand for Text Later, Indiana.” The money for the contest is coming from a grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the IED states. “It’s a campaign against texting while driving and it’s a scholarship offered from the state government of Indiana for $5,000 just to spread the word as much as you can. The more tweets, retweets and favorites you get, the better chance you have of winning,” Kline explained. Since April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month, Kline and Navarro have been working on the campaign all month, with the final day being Wednesday. Kline said she found out about the contest on Twitter a few days before it started. “The first day I texted a lot of my friends to help spread the word, help retweet and favorite. Now I’ve gained 100 followers through the entire process, and there’s a lot of educators and different people have started following me,” she said. Navarro said, “Every tweet has the same hashtag on it and on Twitter you can go to that one hashtag so that’s probably how” the state will know how many retweets and favorites each account gets. The hashtag #TXTL8RIN must be included in every Tweet to be considered, according to IN.gov To participate in the contest, Kline filled out a form online. “It’s on her Twitter account but I’ll help her write tweets (and do research),” Navarro said. “I’ll tweet a lot about texting while driving is worse than drinking and driving, and texting while driving makes you 23 more times likely to crash, while drinking and driving is 14 times,” Kline said. “There’s a lot of tragic stories about people who have been injured or died while texting and driving. A lot locally as well, so we’ll use some of that,” Navarro stated. Being part of the campaign has made both seniors stop texting while driving, they said. “I’ve definitely – I used to (text while driving) – but now I make sure I silence my phone, put it far away. It’s a temptation, it’s hard, but it’s so dangerous. It’s not worth it,” Kline said. Navarro added, “Everyone asks if you have really stopped, and honestly I have. I didn’t do it that much but now I really try not to look at my phone at all.” “I know a lot of people have told me they’ve stopped, too, because of what we’re putting out there,” Kline said. Navarro said, “We’ve heard stories about people we know at the high school, friends, who recently got in an accident because of distracted driving. The main thing isn’t always texting, but anything that can distract you.” “Using your phone at all – not just texting,” Kline added. “Some people think they’re good at it – ‘it’s not going to happen to me.’ But we really want to get out there that you shouldn’t even risk it because all it takes is a split second not to be looking,” Navarro said. The positive impact the campaign has put on other people’s lives, getting them to stop texting while driving, is the most important thing about it, she said. Both Kline and Navarro are going to Grace College in Winona Lake, so the $5,000 each of them could win will be a big help to pay for their college expenses. To help them win, Kline said people can follow her account @Hannah__Kline and retweet or favorite her tweets. For the contest, she tweets about three to five messages a day. TXTL8RIN has its own Twitter page @_ItCanWait
