Personal Stories Hit Home at New York Teen Driver Safety Summit

Among the cruelest realities of crashes involving impaired or distracted drivers is how quickly everything changes. One minute, people are laughing in the car. The next, they are on the way to the hospital — or worse.

Speakers at the 2026 New York Teen Driver Safety Summit on Long Island, hosted by AAA and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, wanted to make sure that more than 60 high school students in attendance got that message. Several presenters talked about how a driver’s lapse in judgement for a second has impacted their own lives forever.

“The summit focused on impairment and distraction behind the wheel and made a significant contribution to advancing the national AAA-MADD Campaign to End Impaired Driving,” said Mary Maguire, vice president for public and government affairs for AAA Northeast. “The speakers were impactful, and their real-life stories reminded the Public Affairs team that our community outreach matters. If we can convince just one more student to wear a seat belt or to think twice before driving drunk or distracted, we can potentially save a life.”

Sobering Statistics

The numbers alone are jarring. About 32 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes every day — the equivalent of one person every 44 minutes. In 2024, 11,904 people died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes.

Inexperience also plays a role. Teen drivers have the highest chance of being involved in a fatal crash in the first six months after receiving their license, noted Maureen McCormick, special assistant for legislative initiatives in the Suffolk County district attorney’s office.

Among drivers ages 15 to 20 who died in car crashes, 29% had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.01 grams per deciliter of blood (0.01%) or higher. About 28% were at or above the legal adult level of intoxication of 0.8%. 

Committed to Change

For Jacy Good and Steve Johnson, founders of Hang Up and Drive, a split-second distraction forever changed their lives and set them on a mission to warn young people about the dangers of distracted driving. Since they began speaking to groups in 2010, Good and Johnson have done countless public interviews and delivered more than 1,900 presentations in 44 states and three countries.

“You have the power to save lives,” Johnson told the students.

College sweethearts, Good and Johnson were planning their lives together after graduating in May 2008. Good and her parents were driving to their home in Pennsylvania after the ceremonies when a teenage driver, distracted by his phone, started to turn left at a red light. The driver of a tractor trailer swerved to avoid hitting him and crashed head on into the Good’s car. Good’s parents were killed instantly; she was rushed to a hospital, where after 8.5 hours of surgery, doctors said she had about a 10% chance of survival.

But she persevered through months of hospitalizations and rehabilitation and has mostly recovered. Although she still has some lingering effects. Johnson was by her side the entire time.

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Sharing Their Reality

Less than a year after the crash, Good was busy urging Pennsylvania’s General Assembly to prohibit cellphone use while driving. No charges were filed against the driver who caused the truck to swerve, since at the time, Pennsylvania had no laws regulating cellphone use by drivers. In 2025, the state legislature passed a law making cellphone use while driving illegal.

Good and Johnson further sealed their partnership when they married in 2013. While it was a joyous day, Good said she missed wedding rituals like dress shopping with her mother and a father-daughter dance.

“We built the life we have,” Johnson said. “But these are not shoes you want to be in.”

Be The Change

During their presentations, the two stressed that just having cellphones within reach while driving is distracting.

“There is an idea that we can be connected all the time, but that’s just not true,” Good said.

Even using Bluetooth devices can affect your attention, according to Johnson.

“Just listening to people talking on the phone while driving isn’t safe. It distracts people,” he said.

Discipline and good friends can help.

“Get to your car five minutes earlier. Finish your call and then put on your seatbelt and put your phone away,” Good said.

Or let a friend be the designated texter, and have them hold the phone and respond to messages.

“You have the power to make a difference,” Good said.

 “You can be the one who says, ‘slow down,’ Johnson added.

For Tyniah, 18, of Uniondale High School, who soon will be driving, the warnings hit home.

“Hearing about the crashes is scary,” she said. “I need to make sure I drive the speed limit, drive sober and not drive with anyone who has been drinking.”

What Good most wanted students to take away from her story is that there are faces behind all the crash figures.

“Reality is not just numbers,” she said. “It’s real people.”

Ellen R. Delisio

Ellen is a content producer for AAA Northeast, covering automotive, finance, public affairs and electric vehicle news. She is a former newspaper reporter with experience writing for print and online publications about everything from higher education to sustainability. She recently returned to her native Long Island after living in Connecticut for 20-plus years, and has never met a beach she didn’t like.