Teen traffic offenders steered to safety

[Max]

Teen traffic offenders steered to safety

Photo Gallery


click to enlarge

Darius Carlins
Steven Adams/Tribune-Review



Tools
Print this article
E-mail this article
Subscribe to this paper




By Tom Jewell
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, November 2, 2003



National statistics on the risks faced by teenage drivers speak for themselves -- one out of every seven 16-year-olds will be in a serious crash before they turn 17.
One-third of those killed will be speeding.

Such statistics, though, don't mean teenagers will begin paying attention to the risks, say law enforcement and medical experts.

Darius Carlins, coordinator of the ThinkFirst injury-prevention program at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, impressed upon juvenile traffic offenders Saturday the dangers they pose to themselves and others.






"Right now, you're fortunate that this is the only thing that happened -- that you didn't hurt somebody else and you didn't hurt yourself," the paraplegic told seven teenagers who have been cited for minor driving offenses. "But things could have been much, much worse -- and it only takes one time to mess up."

Carlins, 35, was a month away from graduation at Baldwin High School in the spring of 1986, when some friends pulled up before school one morning and asked him if he wanted to take the day off.

He took them up on the offer, which also included a cooler full of beer. When he stepped out of a local pizza parlor after lunch and got into a car, Carlins didn't realize that it would be the last time he would walk.

A short time later, Carlins had to be cut out of the wreckage of the 1978 Camaro, which was wrapped around a tree in someone's front yard. The driver broke his arm. The front-seat passenger basically walked away from the accident.

Carlins broke his back, suffered a spinal-cord injury and lost the use of his legs.

"My whole life changed from that second on," Carlins said.

The youngsters yesterday watched a filmed re-enactment of a serious traffic accident. They also listened to paramedics and trauma surgeons and toured the intensive-care unit at Children's. Each youngster had to wear neck and leg braces, casts, crutches, and in one case, use a wheelchair.

The program accepts teens who have been cited for minor traffic offenses, such as speeding, running stop signs and minor accidents. If teens attend the half-day session and commit no further traffic violations, their driving records will be wiped clean.

"There are increased risks associated with teens -- they don't wear seat belts, they speed, they have multiple passengers, they drive at night and on the weekends," said Plum District Justice Linda Zucco, who sent three offenders to the session yesterday. "And drugs and alcohol also come into play."

Although the pilot program is not intended to "overwhelm" teen participants, trauma surgeon Dr. Barbara Gaines of Children's said the objective is to show the juvenile traffic offenders that their driving can be a threat to themselves and others.

"We want to show them that actions have consequences that can be serious and even deadly and that they need to be in control of their behavior," Gaines said.

Carlins, a former hockey player, is now a player-coach for the Pittsburgh wheelchair basketball team known as the Steel Wheelers. He talks to about 10,000 youngsters a year, having made more than 120 presentations in the 2002-03 school year.

The next group of traffic offenders is scheduled to attend the session in February at Children's.

In addition to Zucco, participating district justices are: Suzanne Blaschalk of West Deer; Mary Grace Boyle of Pleasant Hills; Eileen Conroy of Oakland; Leonard Hromyak of Penn Hills; Richard King of Carrick; and Richard Olasz of West Mifflin.


Tom Jewell can be reached at tjewell@tribweb.com or (412) 380-8516.

Back to headlines



Click here for advertising information || List all Advertisers

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/trib.../s_163068.html