NASCAR drivers warn against driving while distracted

Today’s 2.5-hour program offered by Nationwide, Trevor Bayne, and Petty Safe Driving helped students at Woodward Career Technical High School in Cincinnati explore ways to be focused on safe driving.

CINCINNATI, June 10, 2010 -- Today, Nationwide Insurance teamed up with NASCAR Nationwide Series star Trevor Bayne and Petty Safe Driving to help Cincinnati high school students understand the dangers of driving while distracted and the need for them to be safe drivers.

Today’s 2.5-hour program helped students at Woodward Career Technical High School explore ways to be focused on safe driving. Students learned skills in a classroom setting and then went out into the school’s parking lot to practice what they learned.

"Whether it's on the racetrack or the road the stakes are high if I don't focus," said Trevor Bayne, driver of the No. 99 Out! Pet Care Toyota. "That's why I'm talking with students today to help them understand the importance of safe driving."

The real driving experience was set up to test the students’ skills, practice-driving responses in dangerous situations and put them in situations with a hazard that needed to be maneuvered around. Modules included straight line braking and crash avoidance.

Nationwide Insurance brought the NASCAR drivers to the school so they could highlight that safe driving is important to everyone, even professional drivers.

Nationwide and the National Safety Council developed www.NationwideSmartRide.com, a website to provide parents and teens free tools and resources to help develop safe drivers and reinforce smart behavior. This defensive driving training site available free to anyone regardless of whether they are a Nationwide customer.