(upbeat music) - Hi everyone, Steve Adubato.

Safe Driving, that is the theme today.

And we kick off the program with Heather Eckhardt, who is a student assistance counselor at Delaware Valley Regional High School.

And Kate Kraynanski, who is secretary of Students Against Destructive Decisions.

She's a junior in high school as we speak.

How you doing, both of you, you doing all right?

- Good, how are you?

- Yeah, good.

- Yeah.

- Well, first of all, let's tee this up.

We're about to see a public service announcement that you, Kate, and your colleagues put together.

It's called, what's the name of the PSA?

- It's Students Against Distracted Driving.

- Okay, and there's a competition that, the Just Drive competition that was organized by the folks at NJM, New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company, and also the Brain Alliance of New Jersey.

Why don't we take a look at, Georgette, our executive producer, can we take a look at the PSA, 'cause it's all about safe driving.

The young people at Delaware Valley Regional High School did it.

They won second prize, that's 10 grand.

Not bad.

- Not bad.

- Let's take a look at the PSA.

- Should we go to Starbucks after school today?

- Yeah, I'll drive.

- With all of us?

- No, no, no.

According to NJ's GDL laws, drivers with a probationary license are only allowed one additional passenger.

- Yeah, we should take a pic.

- Should you be using your phone while driving?

- Oh, no, no, no, probationary drivers may not use any handheld or hands-free devices at any time while driving.

- Wait, Macy, it's getting kinda late.

Can you drive me home?

- Yeah, of course.

- Are you allowed to drive after 11?

- Oh, probationary drivers are not permitted to drive a motor vehicle after 11:01 p.m. Get there alive.

- (clapping) Heather, I gotta ask you, how proud are you of your students?

- I am so proud.

All the hard work that they put into this, and our vision was even different than what it came out to be.

The editor did an amazing job, and I think they really worked hard on it.

- Talk about that, Kate, from your perspective.

You were one of the writers, correct?

- Yeah, so we made a bunch of different scenes that we wanted to have in the video, and we wanted to make sure that it was very fun, and exciting, and not just a boring public service announcement.

So a lot of the editing that our editor did was to make it super fun, and very exciting.

And we're really happy about the way it turned out.

- We have two young men in our home, our sons, they're not just young men in a home, our sons, who are both driving, our daughter Olivia's 12, and talking about a car down the road, and I'm thinking, "I can't even deal with the other two.

And this one's talking about driving."

Point being, for most of us as parents, Heather, there's a lot of panic, there's a lot of fear, there's a lot of anxiety.

And that PSA was so clear, these distractions, right?

- Yes.

- How much is that a part of the problem in terms of safe driving, distractions, particularly with phones?

- I think it's a big distraction, especially for teenagers, 'cause I think they are just so used to always having their phone, using their phone, using social media.

And I think in the car, it is a, obviously it's a huge no-no.

But I think distracted driving for teenagers is a big issue, and it's a big concern.

- Hey, talk about that, because again, I see our kids with their phones constantly, and their friends with their phones.

How challenging has it been for you to be a student leader, to talk about, "Hey, time out.

This is dangerous, let's put the phones away."

How hard has that been?

You're smiling as I'm saying it.

- Yeah, it's been really hard.

I always have my phone on me, I always use my phone.

And driving with phones is definitely very dangerous, and you should not do it at all.

It's against the law.

And just working with phones all of the time, it's very hard to just put it down, and not get distracted by it easily.

- What's been the reaction, Kate, to the PSA among your colleagues, among the students?

- It's been very positive.

I think most people agree with the rules.

I mean, they are laws.

Most people I know follow them, everyone should follow them.

I think that it definitely brought awareness how we wanted it to, so yeah.

- We're at over 625 views right now on our PSA, so we're pretty proud of that.

- Yes, it's pretty good.

- 'Cause we're from a pretty small school.

- Heather, how did you get into this whole thing?

- As far as being the leader, the advisor for SADD?

As soon as I started working here, at Del Val eight years ago, I started back the club, because it was not in existence anymore at Del Val.

Just to get the positive message out there to our school about making good choices, when it comes to drugs and alcohol, when it comes to your mental health, when it comes to driving, stress, all of those things.

So I wanted to, I'm the student assistance counselor here, so I, as part of my job, I address a lot of those issues and concerns, individually in a group level with our students at Del Val.

So SADD helped me get a group of kids together that also wanted to focus on those issues, and bring awareness to our school on those topics.

- And SADD is Students Against Destructive Decisions, correct?

- Yes, it used to be Students Against Drunk Driving, like MADD, but then I think they realized that there were other decisions that we also wanted kids to be able to focus on, and making good choices just in general, not just on drunk driving.

- Kate, what's this done for you to be involved in this?

- So I was in another group called Girls Group, with Miss Zucker, and she was talking about it one day, and I thought it was a really great idea for me to join it.

And then once I joined it, I found out that I really enjoyed what we were doing, and all of the activities and clubs like that we were doing within it.

And so then I wanted to be secretary of it, and I just wanted to help more with the club.

- I'm a student of leadership, and I know a leader when I see a leader, and you are a leader.

Real quick, one of the other themes in the PSA, Heather, I want you to talk about this, and Kate as well, was the number of kids in the car.

- Right.

- Right?

Let's clarify that, what is the law?

- New Jersey's law for someone who is only on a graduated driver's license, which is what the GDL stands for, a probationary license, is you are only allowed to have one other member in the car at the same time, yes.

- What about, hey, put you on the spot, nighttime, what are the rules?

- So when you have your graduated driver's license, you can't drive from 11:01 p.m. to 5:01 a.m. - So those are the rules, those are the laws.

There's a reason for them.

We wanna thank the folks at NJM, and at the New Jersey, the Brain Alliance, Brain Injury Alliance of New Jersey, for putting this initiative together, the Just Drive initiative.

We will continue to do programming about safe driving and the importance of it.

And it's not just for those of us who have teenage drivers, it's for everyone out there on the roads.

So Heather, Kate, congratulations.

You won second prize, that's 10 grand.

That's a really good cause.

And we wish you and your colleagues all the best.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Thank you so much.

- Job well done.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by NJM Insurance Group.

Johnson & Johnson.

Hackensack Meridian Health.

The New Jersey Education Association.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

Rutgers University Newark.

PSC.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

And by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Promotional support provided by CIANJ, and Commerce Magazine.

And by New Jersey Monthly.

NJM Insurance Group has been serving New Jersey businesses for over a century.

As part of the Garden State, we help companies keep their vehicles on the road, employees on the job and projects on track, working to protect employees from illness and injury, to keep goods and services moving across the state.

We're proud to be part of New Jersey.

NJM, we've got New Jersey covered.