Insurance company helps to use peer pressure for good | Maryland Gazette (HometownGlenBurnie.com)

At the only county school to get funds through Erie Insurance Co.'s Lookin' Out program, Meade students will have a chance to drive a specially engineered car that simulates drunken driving.

"We want to see the number of teen crashes and deaths decline as a result of teenagers understanding that the risks that are there when they get behind the wheel are something they need to take very seriously," said Matt Bresee, the Lookin' Out program coordinator.

The Lookin' Out Safety Bug, a specially adapted Volkswagen Beetle, will be at the school April 4.

Other programs include White Out Days. Students will be taken out of class periodically throughout the day and have their faces painted white to represent the average number of teens killed each day in car crashes across America.

Mock crashes also will be staged to show what can happen in a car accident.

Students at Meade already have had firsthand experience with the dangers of driving.

Just five hours after receiving his diploma on June 10, William Henry Reynolds Jr., 17, was killed when he lost control of his 1993 Mercury Sable while driving north on Reece Road.

The Severn teenager was rounding a curve around 12:50 a.m. when his car ran off the road and hit a tree. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said alcohol was not a factor and blamed speed for the crash.

Mr. Reynolds was not well known at the school, having transferred in from Kansas City earlier that year.

But the school quickly embraced the Lookin' Out Bug program, putting a student group together and applying for the grant late last year after it was brought to their attention by Emily Sachek, an Erie Insurance Agent, and Gloria Redmiles, secretary for the Meade Parent Teacher Student Association.

"I have seen so many pictures of students who have been involved in accidents, and they are disfigured and scarred for life," said Mrs. Redmiles, an employee at Erie Insurance's Silver Spring office.

She wanted students to know that a driver's license is a privilege and an honor, but also a big responsibility.

Officer James McDermott, the county police resource officer at the school, has done mock crashes in the past before the school had a formalized program.

In these staged accidents, the fire department digs students out of a smashed vehicle. Some end up in body bags and some come out covered in fake blood.

At the end of the White Out Day, the school will gather for an assembly so students can see the total number of teens who die in car crashes in one day.

"The awareness for the students becomes 'think about if you lose that friend,'" Mr. Bresee said. "You lose that person who sits next to you in class."

The Lookin' Out Bug drives like a regular car, but is engineered to stimulate the effects of alcohol on reaction time. Students will drive it in two loops around the parking lot. During the second loop, the car loses control for seven-tenths of a second - the amount of time the average person's reaction time slows with each drink of alcohol.

Those closely involved with Lookin' Out are seeing positive results because the program has students talking to students and not adults talking to students.

"Students themselves are saying that there is some degree of behavior change as a result of the activities they see and take part in," said Mr. Bresee.

The Lookin' Out program, which started in Pennsylvania, is available in Washington, D.C., and all 11 states in which Erie Insurance operates.

This year Erie Insurance awarded grants to five other schools in Maryland, but Meade High was the only one in Anne Arundel County.

Mrs. Redmiles is working with the guidance counselor of the Center of Applied Technology - North in Severn to get the program started there.

"I'm trying to do whatever I can for these students," she said.