Signal Staff Writer
mgasca@the-signal.com
Posted: Oct. 17, 2009 8:17 p.m.
Local teens learned lessons in safe driving Saturday at the Teen Driving Safety Fair in Central Park.
The Automobile Club of Southern California partnered with the city of Santa Clarita and numerous local organizations to host the free fair which incorporated interactive safety demonstrations, educational classes and lesson-based activities.
“The number one killer of teens is teen driving crashes,” said Anita Lorz, team lead of community relations and traffic safety program for the Automobile Club.
“It’s important to get teens to learn about the issues so we have a spectrum of activities.”
With goggles strapped over his eyes, 15-year-old Austin Dollens tried to walk across a painted line on the ground.
The wobble in his steps and his stumble off the line proved it was not a simple task for the Acton teen who will soon receive his learner’s permit.
The goal was to impair the teens’ vision with blurred goggles, teaching them what it would be like — in part — to drive over the legal limit of alcohol intoxication.
“It really demonstrates how just a small amount (of alcohol) can impair your vision and what a difference it makes,” Dollens said.
But what the goggles could not simulate was impaired judgment.
“I tell them the goggles are impairing your vision, but judgment is the first thing that’s impaired. So drunk drivers usually don’t know their vision is impaired,” said Renee James, an Automobile Club Driving Instructor who helped host the driving activities.
Santa Clarita’s first Teen Driving Safety Fair kicked off Teen Driver Safety Week.
Automobile Club spokeswoman Elaine Beno said while the number one cause of teen collisions is inexperience, distractions also are high on the list.
“My biggest fear is distracted driving,” said Valerie Dollens, step-mother of Austin Dollens.
“Kids downplay the impact of looking at their phone really quick. A lot can happen in that split second.”
One reason Automobile Club chose Central Park as the site for the fair was because of the Santa Clarita Youth Grove.
The Youth Grove is a dedication to 73 Santa Clarita young people who have died in traffic-related collisions.
Two of those young people were the sons of Alice and Tom Renolds, who volunteered to speak about their sons’ deaths at the fair.
The Renolds lost their teen sons, Tim and Danny Renolds, in a reckless driving accident on Soledad Canyon Road in February, 2000.
Tim and Danny were backseat passengers in the fatal collision, in which the driver was speeding at 100 miles per hour, Renolds said.
“A lot of people who listen never thought about how being a passenger, that (they) could die,” said Alice Renolds.
Passengers have to be aware too, she said.
The Renolds, of Canyon Country, became involved in the city’s Blue Ribbon Task Force not long after the death of their sons.
“It’s what we needed to do,” Alice Renolds said. “After they were gone, we needed a reason to get out of bed.”
The Renolds hoped that telling their family’s story would help save at least one teen life.
“If we can help one parent from going through this nightmare ... we know we’ve done something,” said Alice Renolds.
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