Teen drivers test their safety skills
Taylor Kraynak, 18, of Trinity High School, prepares to start the driving test as Dean Riland, assistant general manager of Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association, scores her on her skills.
Jefferson-Morgan student Eli Rafail carefully observes a slide during a perception test. Students were shown a slide with a roadside view and then were tested on their ability to recall what they observed. It was a part of the annual youth traffic safety competition at North Franklin Township’s fire department.
Beth-Center student Amanda Blaze waits as Washington police officer Steve Robertson and Jim Guffey, crash liaison for North Central Highway Safety Network, measure the space between the wood plank and Blaze’s car. Blaze traversed a course testing her ability to maneuver around a serpentine, parallel park and stop without hitting an obstacle. Blaze took first place and won $500 in the Youth Traffic Safety competition.
Eighteen-year-old Amanda Blaze said it felt like she was taking her driver’s test all over again.
The senior at Bethlehem-Center High School was among the teen drivers testing their driving skills Thursday as part of the annual youth traffic safety competition at North Franklin Township’s fire department.
Teen drivers from Beth-Center and Trinity in Washington County and Jefferson-Morgan in Greene County navigated vehicles through a course before taking a perception driving test that challenged their observation skills.
The young drivers first went through a serpentine that tested their ability to maneuver around obstacles without hitting anything, said Jay Ofsanik, safety press officer for the state Department of Transportation District 12.
They then pulled up to two cones, with a piece of wood in between. The drivers were asked to put the nose of the car as close to the wood as possible without going over it to test their perception of the front of the vehicle. They then crossed the wood and stopped with the back of the car as close to the board as possible to test their perception of the back of the vehicle.
Young drivers also took the dreaded parallel parking test between a set of cones, with several of the cones representing a curbed sidewalk. The score was based on how close they got to the curb.
When they were done, the young drivers checked a parked vehicle for road readiness. Washington police Chief Robert Wilson, who scored the drivers, said they should have noticed the bunched-up floor mat, cellphone charger hanging from the rearview mirror, the unlatched hood, missing passenger side windshield wiper blade and the open rear passenger door. Wilson said most did not notice the missing wiper blade.
Drivers were then taken inside for a perception test, where they were shown a slide of a view of a road from behind the wheel for seven seconds and then asked three true-or-false questions to test what the remembered seeing.
Blaze thought the test did a good job simulating a true driving experience. She and other students at Beth-Center have the option of taking driver’s education as an elective. Mailyn Bakewell, a 17-year-old junior at the school, took the class and said the course was a good representation of what they were taught. Their teacher, Frank Pryor, is certified by the state to give the students their driving test.
Driver’s education is no longer offered at Trinity, but students like 18-year-old senior Taylor Kraynak stay on their own after class for instruction by teachers who volunteer their time.
“The course was a lot harder, even when you think you are a good driver,” Kraynak said. “It was stressful and nerve-wracking.”
Eli Rafail, a 17-year-old junior at Jefferson-Morgan, said that his school also does not offer driver’s education. But that was not an issue for him as his dad, Alan Rafail, is a retired driver’s education teacher and taught him how to drive.
“He made be the best driver I could be,” said Rafail.
Car crashes are the leading cause of death among teens ages 16 to 19, with AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety finding that distraction was a factor in six out of 10 moderate to severe teen crashes.
Thursday’s competition was meant to remind students of the importance of safe driving skills and education. In addition to AAA, it was sponsored by Southwest Regional Traffic Safety and the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association.
When the scores were tallied at the end of the competition, Blaze took first place and won a $500 with Kraynak taking second and winning $250. Third place went to Adam Raggi, a junior at Trinity, won $150. Blaze and Kraynak advance to the state competion where the winner receives a $5,000 scholarship.