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Walk-a-thon in memory of SMCHS student slated April 17

by in News

Personal Injury News

Article Date: 4/7/2010 | Resource: MLG


Walk-a-thon in memory of SMCHS student slated April 17

The third JourneySafe Walk-a-thon in memory of Zach Raffety is just around the corner on April 17.

The walk is scheduled from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Santa Margarita Catholic High School athletic track. Registration is free, but participants are encouraged to collect pledges and donations. Money raised from the walkathon goes towards teen driving safety programs.

Raffety was a 17-year-old Santa Margarita Catholic High School Student who lost his life in a car crash last April. The driver was driving too quickly; drugs and alcohol were not a factor, according to police reports. Raffety’s parents teamed up with JourneySafe to promote safety among teen drivers following the crash. Raffety is one of about 6,000 American teens to die in a car crash in the last year, according to statistics on the JourneySafe Web site.

JourneySafe is an outreach program educating teens to become better drivers and passengers by changing their attitudes about driving. The program encourages teens to be safe drivers by:

•Having a designated driver and a designated passenger.

•Making sure the designated driver focuses on the road and driving
only.

•Making sure the designated passenger takes care of distractions like cell phones, radio volume, air conditioning and other passengers while keeping the driver in check.

•Practicing “positive peer pressure” so that friends encourage friends to make good choices behind the wheel.

•Getting families involved to help make distracted driving “socially unacceptable.”

The Gillian Sabet Memorial Foundation created the JourneySafe program. Sabet’s parents established the foundation in 2005 following the death of their 17-year-old daughter Gillian Sabet while she was a riding in a friend’s car. They continue to promote teen driver and passenger safety awareness through JourneySafe presentations and workshops at schools throughout the county.

For more information regarding this article please contact:

Jeffrey Marquart
(949)589-0150
jmarquart@marquartlawgroup.com