A powerful experience for young people has returned to The Track Family Fun Parks. After a five-year hiatus, Life on Track, a program for junior high and high school students, was again offered at The Track.
Baylor Hodges is a self-proclaimed "doer of all things" at The Track. Hodges, who has worked with The Track Family Fun Parks for 10 years, was tasked with reviving the program.
"After about a five-year break, we were able to get Life on Track back on track," explained Hodges. "Life on Track is an event that started in 2009. We partner with the Missouri Highway Patrol and are able to offer an educational experience to students in Stone and Taney counties on drinking and driving and distracted driving."
Hodges continued, "We use our facilities. The Highway Patrol brings drunk driving goggles. We have phones donated from Russell Cellular, so the kids are able to participate and do very interactive lessons. After doing the physical side of it, driving the go-karts with the phones and the drunk driving goggles, they then sit through an educational portion with Sergeant Mike McClure, where they learn about the dangers and some of those things that come along with distracted driving."
“The Missouri State Highway Patrol is delighted to be part of the Life on Track program, which provides this unique opportunity for students and helps them understand the importance of safe driving behavior,” McClure said. “We have an alarming number of statistics that show half of all teens will be involved in a traffic accident before graduating from high school. Traffic crashes are also the leading cause of death among teens. The Life on Track experience teaches teens what to do to prevent these things from happening.”
Life on Track is available for students in grades seven through ten.
"We have five different schools represented this year," noted Hodges. "There is Forsyth, Galena, Reeds Spring, Taneyville and Branson."
The 2024 Life on Track program will reach approximately 300 students.
“The Track has been a wonderful community partner, not only to us, but to all the school districts in the surrounding area,” said Brad Swofford, Superintendent for the Branson School District. “We have partnered with The Track Family Fun Parks for more than a decade to provide this amazing educational exercise for our students. It is an invaluable and impactful way for them to learn about the life-altering consequences of driving impaired and while distracted.”
According to the Underage Drinking Prevention Coalition of the Taney County Health Department, the average age of first use of alcohol among our youth has decreased to age 12. Nearly 50 percent of adolescents have had at least one drink by eighth grade. Someone is killed or injured in an alcohol-related crash every 2.7 hours in Missouri. Preliminary statistics indicate alcohol was involved in 181 fatal crashes in Missouri in 2023. Drunk drivers killed 183 people and seriously injured 755 in Missouri traffic crashes last year.
Eighty percent of crashes involve some form of distracted driving, such as texting, eating, talking, or changing the radio. Inattention continues to be the leading cause of all traffic crashes. Missouri Law prohibits anyone from texting while driving; however, 50 percent of Missouri teens say they text while they drive.
“One of our greatest missions as a company is to give back to our community, and we have the unique opportunity to offer a safe environment where youth can learn some very important lessons,” said James Dodds, General Manager of The Track Family Fun Parks. “Our goal is that students participating in the Life on Track program will understand the dangers and potential life-threatening effects that distracted and/or drunk driving could have on themselves and those around them."
"We're really hoping that, after this program, these kids are able to learn some of the dangers of being distracted while driving," Hodges added. "Obviously cell phones are easily woven into our daily lives and if we can get even one of these kids who sit through this to not pick up their phone and not get into an accident where they are injured or worse, then that is worth it for us!"
留言