WINONA -- Seniors at Winona High School attended a Youth Highway Safety Program Friday in the school auditorium. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department hosted the class.
Led by Tawni Basden, Youth Highway Safety Program Manager at University of Mississippi Medical Center, students learned that automobile accidents were the leading cause of death for those under 20.
Basden said in 2016, 54 percent of youth deaths were caused by automobile accident. Of that 54 percent, 16 to 20 percent was ere due to no seatbelt or not wearing the seatbelt correctly, 13 percent was due to speeding, and eight percent was due to alcohol or drugs.
Basden said Mississippi’s laws aren’t strong enough to properly enforce its texting law, so there are no statistics available for texting while driving.
“[These students] are new drivers and we are trying to teach them things to help them,” Basden said. “Most importantly, to be sober, belted, and distraction free.”
Closer to home, Basden said in Mississippi in 2016, 4,094 young people from birth to age 20 were injured or killed in a car accident.
“Mississippi leads the country in car accident fatalities,” Basden said. “In Mississippi 4,094 were killed or injured. That will fill up 56 school buses.
In Montgomery County in 2016, 11 young people were injured and one killed. In Carroll County, 25 were injured.
