PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
Greetings from Mr. Mickey Tripp, NCDTSEA President
I hope everyone has had a productive and safe school year thus far. There always seems to be so much work to do and so little time to do it. Ours is a never-ending endeavor to educate and advertise the benefits and importance of safe behavior while driving. The messages and knowledge we share is always evolving with the changes to traffic patterns as well as changes of driver behavior behind the wheel. There are many ways in which our vehicles themselves and the advancement of technology are making our drivers safer but if used improperly, can create a very dangerous driving environment for both the driver and those around that vehicle. So, our message is more important than ever. Our young people face driving challenges that have never in the history of the world been faced before, and those challenges will continue to evolve in different ways as people and cars be-come more and more dependent upon technology. The list of what NOT to do behind the wheel is growing, however, the list of what we SHOULD be doing behind the wheel remains the same. Most information and knowledge eventually become obsolete but teaching young people how to drive is and will remain as constant and important in the future as it is today and has been in the past. In our great state of North Carolina, many people and organizations are seeing to it that we don’t fall behind or become complacent in how we are teaching our students about traffic safety. The dedicated members of our association, and its board, are paying very close attention to how driver education is being taught and how effective it is in reducing teen deaths around our state. Make no mistake, what we are doing IS SAVING LIVES. The statistics bear this out but more importantly, our students have a greater awareness of their own responsibilities while driving.
This is a credit to everyone in this state who chooses to teach, advertise and develop better and innovative ways of helping drivers in North Carolina to drive safer. As we continue to move forward as a driver education community, we have the resources in place to be successful well into the future. Karl Logan and his team at DPI are creating programs and various ways to better train instructors.
More in-services and trainings are be-coming available statewide that will al-low us to keep up with current trends in both teaching and driving behavior. Susan Harrison, our Legislative Consult-ant, has been and will continue to be our advocate at the State Legislature and help us to understand the things we need to accomplish so that our elected officials will continue to have a full under-standing of the great value of our driver education program. As your association President, I know I can speak for all on our board when I express how appreciative we are for Karl and Susan, as well as all those who work tirelessly every single day to help our children become the next generation of safe drivers.