East Haven Students' Safe Teen Driving Video Among Best in State

It's another well-earned notch in the belt of East Haven High School students.

Teen driving safety advocates from around the state ranked the best entries in the 2012 DMV teen safe driving video contest — and 's entry earned second place spot among the Top 10 finalist (see video posted in the gallery that accompanies this article.)

The video was produced, directed and edited by members of the school's SADD Club.

For their second-place finish, the team received a $4,000 cash prize for the high school.

Multicultural Award

The East Haven students also received the Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital Injury Prevention Award for Multicultural Awareness Prize.

In addition to receiving the honor, the high school also received $500 prize for use in providing a teen safe driving program.

East Haven Team

The East Haven High School video-making team for the contest included:

• Sean Dugan
• Michael Brainerd
• Kristin Page
• Shannon Bailey
• Paisley Chase
• Amber Williams
• Ashley Porrazzo
• Kaleigh Ciscone
• Michael Hill
• Rebecca Womble
• Joanna Kisiel
• Kyle Bennet
• Juan Orozco
• Kennedy Meadows
• Elise Tomasello
• Adrianna Tomasello
• Dominique Delucia

The team's award-winning video can be also be viewed on YouTube as well

Community Theme

This year, the students focused on the theme “How A Community Helps to Make Teens Safe Drivers,” which also included laws tailored to this age group.

Gov. Dannel Malloy and 25 other judges chose the Top 5 winners from among the 103 video entries in the DMV contest called “From the Driver’s Seat to the Director’s Chair.”

It required students to create a public service announcement focused on teens talking to teens about safe driving. It is the department's fourth year for offering the contest.

Travelers is the contest's corporate sponsor. The company donated $15,000 in prizes to winning students' schools.

Contest Rankings

The following are the top-prize ranking videos based on judges’ review of overall impact, originality and cinematic style:

• First Place went to Norwich Free Academy
• Second Place went to East Haven High School
• Third Place went to Hall High School of West Hartford
• Fourth Place went to Keegan of Hall High School of West Hartford
• Fifth Place went Darien High School and Depot SADD Chapter.

Additionally, the overall Top 10 finalists were as follows:

• Arts at the Capitol Theater, Willimantic
• Coginchaug High School, Durham
• Daniel Hand High School, Madison
• Darien High School
• East Haven High School
• Hall High School, West Hartford (3 ranking videos)
• Manchester High School
• Norwich Free Academy

Videos of the five winning teams and all the finalists can be viewed on DMV’s YouTube channel.

Safe Teen Driving

Parents and teens are also encouraged to visit visit www.travelers.com/teendrivingcontest to view the videos and helpful information and resources for teen driving.

A public-service video competition, the contest was open to high-school age teenagers statewide and drew more than 100 entries. The five top winners, were chosen out of the Top 10 finalists.

DMV started the contest in 2008 following its lead in crafting tougher teen driving laws, including longer passenger restrictions and curfews as well as increased penalties for violations and added training requirements (See http://ct.gov/teendriving/laws).