NEWS

"ThinkFirst" to present on consequences of impaired, distracted driving

Oct 5, 2011 | General News

ThinkFirst of the Ark-La-Tex, in conjunction with the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission, will give a presentation to Louisiana Tech students on October 17 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in Memorial Gym, to inform them about the consequences of drinking and driving, and distracted driving.
Program facilitators will introduce the topic of traumatic injury as well as the functions of the brain and spinal cord through an interactive PowerPoint presentation that includes facts, statistics, examples, and images that challenge stu­dents’ understanding of traumatic injury.
Powerful video clips are shown documenting the consequences of drinking and driving, distracted driving, and other injuries that can occur when individuals do not “ThinkFirst.”  A Voice for Injury Prevention (VIP) discusses the traumatic injury they experienced and how it could have been prevented.
Each year, in the United States, more than 500,000 people experience a traumatic injury resulting in death or disability.  In Louisiana, someone dies in a car crash every 12 hours, while someone in Louisiana is injured as a result of a vehicular accident every seven and a half minutes.
The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) initiated the development of the national program due to their frustration at not being able to cure or “fix” brain and spinal cord injured patients.  These groups share the belief that prevention is the only cure, and that neurosurgeons have a duty to try to prevent these traumatic injuries.
ThinkFirst’s initial program, ThinkFirst for Teens, was offered to middle and high school audiences to teach young people about personal vulnerability and risk taking.  The efficacy of the ThinkFirst National Injury Prevention Foundation has been demonstrated through its increasing acceptance by school educators, student essays, letters from parents and public officials, adoption by professional organizations, the measurement of attitude changes toward injury by students, and the increased usage of safety belts in the targeted age group.
For more information about the ThinkFirst presentation, contact Dr. David Szymanski at 257-5462 or dszyman@latech.edu, or Lisa Merritt at 257-5278 or lisa@latech.edu.