Road to Safety competition challenges North Fulton students.

First and second place winners in last year’s Road to Safety Program from Johns Creek High School are pictured with Fulton County Schools Area Superintendent Dr. Sam Taylor (back right), Principal Buck Greene (back left) and Jamie Chuven (front middle), video production teacher at Johns Creek HS. (click for larger version)

by PHOEBE BUMSTED; The Milton Herald

December 05, 2012

NORTH FULTON, Ga. – The third annual Road to Safety video competition will accept entries from high schools across Fulton County until Dec. 18. The top three winners will receive cash prizes of up to $1,000 in addition to donated prizes from local businesses.

The contest, inspired by the memory of Parker Jackson and Patrick Enloe, aims to encourage students to participate in safe driving habits.

"[Their stories showed me that] we've got to do something to get these kids to be safer drivers," Lisa Cauley, Road to Safety co-founder, said.

Cauley believes that Road to Safety is an effective way to reach students because they will be more receptive to messages from their peers than their parents or teachers.

Video submissions can cover any type of dangerous driving, from texting while driving to hydroplaning. The goal is to raise awareness about all kinds of dangerous driving.

"We had more texting and driving videos than any other topic…There's a lot of different things that have not been addressed yet that can still be addressed. Hopefully, we'll get a little more variety this year," Cauley said.

Past videos can be found at the RTS website www.road2safety.com. Schools have access to these videos, and Cauley encourages them to air the videos at large school events such as dances where students might be drinking.

Johns Creek Driving School has used winning videos in its program, and RTS has been recognized through proclamations from the Fulton County Commissioners and the Georgia State Senate.

Participating schools include Alpharetta, Cambridge, Centennial, Chattahoochee, Johns Creek, Milton, Northview and Roswell. Students over the age of 14 can submit videos for consideration to their video production teacher or principal, or they can mail entries directly to RTS. Videos must be on a flash drive or SD card in .mov format in order to be considered.

The judges for the Road to Safety competition will include Lisa Cauley, School Board member Katie Reeves, a police officer, Steve Jones from Johns Creek Driving School and one previous winner. They focus primarily on the message of the videos rather than the quality of the video production. Cauley emphasized that the focus of the contest is not video production but driving safety awareness.

"This is not a video production competition. This is about sending a message, and any student with a home computer, a smartphone or a camcorder can make a two minute video," Cauley said.

Deadline for submissions is Dec. 18 and judging will take place in mid-January.

For more information about RTS, visit www.road2safety.com, email them at roadtosafety@att.net or call 678-428-4254.