Central students present teen driving safety campaign

A group of students at Central Magnet School gave an amazing presentation today for a project called Be in The Zone, which is intended to bring safety awareness to teen drivers.

The group gave their presentation to a group of local elected officials and school district leadership.

The students have spent the better part of the school year gathering and analyzing data from local motor vehicle accidents.

As part of their presentation, the students discussed the following:

* A suggestion for a required course for students to take before they can obtain parking permits at school.
* Analyzed the top crash spots in Rutherford County, studied those intersections and made suggestions for ways to reduce crashes in those areas.
* A suggestion to work with SROs on a social media campaign to reach student-drivers.

The students applied the skills the acquired from a class called Data Science Principles, which was taught by Central’s Dr. Emily Hines.

“It took a lot of work by the girls to pare the data down to something manageable,” Dr. Hines said.

As part of the project, Central will be holding a mock crash event in April which will feature a simulated car crash and emergency responders, including the LifeFlight helicopter landing at the scene. Juniors and Seniors will participate as spectators.

PHOTOS: Central students Kathryn Webber and Genevieve Bineza lead a presentation to local officials and school district leaders about a safety plan for teen drivers and hot spots for crashes in Rutherford County.