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Smart Start Program
By Anonymous — Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
 California Highway Patrol The California Highway Patrol is offering a traffic safety program for teenage drivers and their parents. The Start Smart program is designed as an educational tool for parents and teenagers in an effort to reduce the number of teenage injuries and deaths resulting from traffic collisions. Traffic collisions are the leading cause of death for 15-20 year olds. The primary objective of the program is to provide teens and parents with an understanding of how poor choices behind the wheel can affect the lives of numerous people. The Start Smart program also provides teens and parents with information on defensive driving, traffic laws in California, dynamics of traffic collisions, tips on avoiding traffic collisions, and DUI awareness. Officer Tony Pedeferri will be the guest speaker at this month’s presentation. Officer Pedeferri was critically injured in a traffic collision while on an enforcement stop on December 19th, 2007. The driver responsible for the collision was arrested and had been driving while under the influence of controlled substances. The collision caused the death of one driver and left Officer Pedeferri, a thirteen-year veteran of the CHP, as a paraplegic. “Tony has spoken at previous Start Smart presentations and the impact he’s had on attendees has been huge,” Officer Untalan stated. “His story serves as a reminder that tragedy can happen at any time and to anyone,” Officer Untalan added. Smart Start classes are free of charge and are held at the Ventura CHP Area office. |
