THUNDER BAY -- The youngest member of the Thunder Bay Crime Prevention Council is being recognized for urging her peers to put down the phone while they're driving.
Chantal Petit was recognized with the Young Leader Award as a part of the Mayor's Safety Awards on Monday night for the driving awareness program she helped develop as a member of the community-police partnership Zone Watch.
The program is a series of games for secondary and post-secondary students used to illustrate the dangers of multi-tasking while driving through games and images.
"They're so used to their technology and so reliant on it that we have to draw it away and they have to realize the consequences of texting and driving," Petit said.of young drivers.
Petit believes she has a unique perspective on the issues that impact youth through observing her peers. She hopes to parlay her engagement as one of two youth representatives on the crime prevention council into a career in law enforcement.
"Drinking and driving, I notice within my peer group, it's very stigmatised right now from where it was before. My parents have noticed it's very, very different," she said.
"Nowadays, if you go to any bars or anything, people are very judgmental if you even mention drinking and driving because of the impact it has had on society. I think we can somehow get there with texting and driving and I think we're starting to have that impact."
