FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Contact: Kristen Muszynski
Office: 626-8404/Cell: 441-7638

Teen Driving Expo to offer hands-on safety demonstrations

PORTLAND ? Teens and their parents will have a chance to experience the risks of distracted and impaired driving first-hand during the Maine Teen Driving Expo this Saturday. The Maine Bureau of Highway Safety, Maine Department of the Secretary of State?s Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Maine Department of Transportation and AAA Northern New England are co-sponsoring this event, which will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 23 at the Maine Mall in South Portland.

The expo is an outreach effort of the ?Survive Your Drive? campaign, which seeks to promote safe driving habits, recognizing that car crashes are the leading cause of death of teenagers nationally. All teenagers who are preparing to get their driver?s license, as well as their parents, are encouraged to attend.

The BMV will set up a cones course inside the mall where participants can drive a mobility scooter while texting, to simulate distracted driving.

?This simulation should demonstrate to teens that driving a slow-moving mobility scooter while texting is not as easy as it appears, and hopefully will cause them to think twice about the danger of driving a car while texting,? said Deputy Secretary of State for the BMV Patty Morneault.

Other activities include a ?You?ve Been Ticketed? event, an ?Are you smarter than your teen driver?? quiz, and a mock crash. The expo will also feature simulators and demonstrations, and vendors will be on site.

In addition to participation in this expo, the BMV also offers the Parent Supervised Driving Program, a resource provided to parents to encourage them to take an active role in teaching their teen about safe driving. The BMV?s parent/teen contract for new drivers is also available and is meant to help improve communication between the parents and their teen.