Alpharetta Students Explore Safety At Intersections Near High School

ALPHARETTA, GA -- Family, Career and Community Leaders of America and State Farm are empowering FCCLA members from Alpharetta High School to explore how roadway infrastructure affects their safety.

This week, representatives of national FCCLA, local State Farm agents, Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety and traffic safety experts joined Alpharetta students to assess the safety of the intersections surrounding their school on Webb Bridge Road.

The students' efforts are part of FCCLA’s nationwide Teen Road Safety Assessment initiative made possible by State Farm, including students in more than 150 middle and high schools across the country who are learning about road and intersection safety.

FCCLA, a national career and technical student organization with 160,000 members nationwide, teamed up with State Farm to launch the #TeenRSA initiative. The program emerged from a desire to help students understand road safety features and identify the areas of highest risk near their schools. The RSAs are empowering teens to advocate for the safety of their peers and their community.

“FCCLA’s focus on the family is one of the reasons we highlight the importance of infrastructure and road safety,” said Sandra Spavone, executive director of FCCLA. “We are always seeking ways to ensure the safety of families sharing the roads, especially traveling to school. These assessments can help make teens, and their family members, safer drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists.”

Teen RSAs provide students with an interactive overview of roadway safety and potential dangers near their schools. Students work with their local State Farm agents, law enforcement and members of their community to observe: the number of lanes on the roadways near their schools; adherence of the speed limit; crosswalk safety including lighting and pavement conditions; pedestrian countdown signals; seat belt use of passing motorists and passengers; and hand held cell phone use and other distractions of drivers.

“State Farm is proud to support FCCLA on the Teen RSA initiative and found it helped encourage connections between local youth and State Farm agents at the grassroots level, to promote teen driver safety,” said Justin Tomczak, public affairs and media relations senior specialist for State Farm.

During the 2016-17 school year more than 150 chapters in 23 states participated.

A total of 11 FCCLA chapters in Georgia participated, including Alpharetta, Archer, Bacon, Berkmar, Camden County, Coffee, Evans, Flowery Branch, Green County, Lincoln County and Pelham high schools.

Students are reporting their findings to FCCLA, and the results will be announced in September.

“Our office is very happy that Georgia schools are teaching our students how roadway design, traffic counts, traffic laws, crossing zones and other factors make it possible for all of us to travel on the road every day,” Harris Blackwood, director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety said. “Their research into traffic and pedestrian traffic patterns around their school will also make them more conscientious about driving safely when they are behind the wheel.”

Images via FCCLA