Safe Communities Day has one simple message -- #PRACTICESAFETEXT.
As part of Safe Communities Day on Oct.1, community partners from Safe Communities Central Alberta (SCCA) asked residents to help reduce the number of distracted drivers in their communities and to pledge to practise safe texting.
With more than 1,400 fatalities in Canada from 2006 to 2010 as a result of distracted driving, the message is high priority for communities across Canada, including Innisfail.
“For that reason Safe Communities Central Alberta (SCCA) and its parent organization Parachute are encouraging Canadians to stop texting while driving,” said Kathleen Raines, executive director of SCCA who works out of Red Deer. “What makes distracted driving fatalities so tragic is that the vast majority of them are completely preventable.”
Raines added through community initiatives like Safe Communities Day and the upcoming National Teen Driver Safety Week from October 19 to 25, SCCA wanted to make everyone aware of the devastating effects of distracted driving.
“Education, knowledge and empowerment are key to Parachute's national initiatives such as Safe Communities Day and #PRACTICESAFETEXT,” says Louise Logan, Parachute's president and CEO. “By partnering with Safe Communities chapters across the country, we're helping keep drivers safe behind the wheel.”
Now in its 10th year, Safe Communities Day is an annual public awareness campaign designed to recognize and reward the work Safe Communities do in Canada and around the world.
Central Alberta is one of 64 communities and regions in Canada that have been designated as safe communities. Canadian Safe Communities promote a message that a safe life is a basic right and a Safe Communities designation is recognition of a community's aspiration to create a safer life for all its citizens.
Safe Communities Coalition of Central Alberta facilitates a variety of community partnerships designed to make Central Alberta the safest place to live, learn, work and play.
“We are going to be in Penhold on the morning of October 22 to bring Project Gearshift to Penhold Crossing Secondary School,” said Raines of their local initiative. “Students will be able to learn first hand how distracted driving affects their safety and those around them.”
For more information on #PRACTISESAFETEXT, contact Raines at 403-346-8101 or go to centralalberta.safecommunities.parachutecanada.org.
