Nashville, TN - Motor vehicle crashes continue to be the No. 1 cause of preventable death in teens in the United States. Be in the Zone (BITZ), a teen driver safety program, aims to reduce teen motor vehicle crashes in Tennessee through its unique hospital-school collaboration to educate teen drivers about the dangers of distracted driving.

According to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security’s most recent year-to-date report, there was an increase in traffic fatalities involving teen drivers in 2022-2023.

The Pediatric Trauma Injury Prevention Program at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt is a nationally recognized program with a focus on reducing traumatic injuries among children and promoting safe driving behaviors.

“Be in the Zone is geared toward high schools in the region that are interested in spreading the message about distracted driving to their students and others in the community,” said Amber Sexton, associate program manager for BITZ at Monroe Carell. “Students at participating schools are determined to make an impact through various awareness campaigns and hands-on learning at their schools and Monroe Carell.

“The intensive program teaches teens how to use outreach and education, and how a change in behavior among young drivers can make a difference in their communities.”

This year the Pediatric Trauma Injury Prevention Program received a Nissan Neighbors grant to assist with the implementation of its initiatives.

“Nissan is proud to support the BITZ and Stay Seat Smart programs and launch a partnership that combines resources from Nissan and Monroe Carell to save lives,” said Ali Tonn, senior manager, Philanthropy, Nissan North America. “Our safety engineers know all too well the trauma that can result from motor vehicle accidents. It’s our hope that in sharing our joint expertise with teens and families, all who drive or ride in a vehicle do so in the safest way possible.”

The new partnership is providing a boost that program organizers hope will fuel ideas from participating schools.

“Working with Nissan has really opened our eyes to different perspectives in running our program,” said Stacey Pecenka, MPH, manager of the Pediatric Trauma Injury Prevention Program at Monroe Carell. “Nissan is inspiring everyone and getting them excited about peer-to-peer teaching and projects to highlight driving safely.

“It’s not just about the driver and passengers making good decisions while in a car, but also working with the product safety team at Nissan to learn more about the forensics of what happens to both the vehicle and passengers in car accidents. It provides an entirely new perspective.”

Eight schools signed up for this year’s program which included a hospital day on Oct. 4 — a daylong event where students will experience:

• Rehabilitation exercises from the physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy teams to educate students on what the recovery process looks like after a motor vehicle crash
• A mock trauma simulation in the Emergency Department
• A presentation from speaker Blaze McMeans, who has been personally affected by the consequences of unsafe driving behaviors

A portion of Nissan’s funding supports Stay Seat Smart, a program that addresses child safety seat misuse through education, community outreach and media awareness with the goal of improving knowledge and correct usage of child safety seats.

“Part of our job is to educate families about best practices and not just car seat laws, as well as provide resources to those who need them,” said Pecenka. “We have distributed more than 200 seats in three months across five or six counties.

“Car seats are hard to install, and there are many variables involved when you have multiple children needing to be in car safety seats.”