Students Get A Crash Course In Safe Driving

Angela Barbaro slowly steered her compact car around a set of cones and lined up the passenger-side wheels with a row of tennis balls set just 16 inches apart.

As she crept forward, suddenly each tennis ball ricocheted off its small platform as the tire struck them one by one. Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

“I felt like a horrible driver when I was done,” said Barbaro, a senior at

Barbaro, however, wasn’t taking her driver’s license exam. She and other students from 11 area high schools were participating in a safe driving workshop about the dangers of distracted driving or getting behind the wheel after drinking.

The presentation Friday at the Pittsburgh Technical Institute in North Fayette struck a chord with Barbaro and the other 30 students who experienced how distractions can make driving hazardous.

“I feel like I’m going to be more cautious on the road,” she said. “I’m not going to text (while driving) because that doesn’t seem like such a good idea anymore.”

The “Safe Driving Competition” – sponsored by various police departments and state and county agencies – had three students from each school compete on written, perceptual and driving exams.

They also received sobering advice from a Baldwin man who was paralyzed nearly 25 years ago in a crash before his high school graduation. Darius Carlins told the students not to make foolish decisions like he did when he skipped school to drink with buddies before getting in a car with a drunk driver.

“That’s supposed to be a pretty good time in your life, right?” Carlins said. “It only takes one time to make a bad decision.”

“He’s a good speaker,” said Amanda Barilla, a senior at Keystone Oaks High School, adding that he is a living example of what can happen in a car.

Later, the students listened to Allegheny County police Officer Michael Spagnoletti explain the dangers of impaired driving and how officers determine whether a driver is intoxicated. He also discussed how texting while driving can be just as dangerous as drinking.

“It’s not only drinking and driving,” Plum senior Brittany Beasley said. “It’s other distractions, too. It definitely makes me want to put my phone down while driving.”

Afterward, each student had a chance to get behind the wheel and try the obstacle course that many said was more difficult than their license exam. Shannon Kraus, a senior at Chartiers Valley, waited for her turn and watched nervously as most of the other student hit the tennis balls or made other mistakes.

“I think it’s going to be hard,” Kraus said. “I’m trying not to be nervous. I was really comfortable with my driving instructor, so that seemed easier.”

Each student was graded on each portion of the exam, and the winners of the competition will be announced early next week. Both the school teams and individual students will be awarded prizes depending on where they finished in the competition.