It was a nail-bitingly close competition that came down to four students, buzzing in to answer a mix of trivia questions related to pop culture and music, mixed in with statistics about safety, the impact of speeding and fines for offenses related to negligent or distracted driving.

On Monday, Conant High School students participated in an assembly called “ThinkFast,” a game show-style program focused on safe teen driving and road safety. Students from across the school were split into teams, answering trivia questions with a numbered pad, with the goal of answering both quickly and correctly during the hour-long assembly.

The top two scoring teams, along with representative winners from a dance-off challenge and a 20-second acting challenge where they were asked to convince their sibling to stop driving while exhausted, were the top four contestants in a speed round, where the ultimate winner was D’metri Rodriguez, representing his team of five, “Team SPAM.”

The event was a partnership between the school, NH Teen Driver, the state Office of Highway Safety and Dartmouth Health. The ThinkFast program has been hosted throughout the state.

Conant Director of Counseling Kim Baker said the school participated last year in Dartmouth Health’s Drive Safe program, which included a simulator set that allowed students to see what it was like to drive impaired, or while they were attempting to respond to text messages. As will happen this year, students were given a survey before and after the exercises, and Baker said students report being more engaged with the active learning that the programs provide.

Conant Principal David Dustin said the school has participated in other driving safety programs, such as Project Crash, which simulates a drunk-driving crash and the aftermath, but said that proactive measures that involve the students are shown to have a stronger impact.

“We want to educate with information, rather than just a shock to the system,” Dustin said. “Schools are a place where we can be at the center of providing resources, and provide a consistent message. That’s part of our goal – how we can be at the center of this message.”

Dustin said that the district has had to face the loss of a student due to a crash, referencing the 2007 death of 16-year-old Conant High School student and basketball player Stephen Record, who was a passenger in a crash where one of his teammates was driving.

“It can have a huge impact on our community,” Dustin said. “We have a dual role of being a central point for that education, and making sure that we’re not at the center of one of those tragedies again.”

Quiz yourself

1. In 2021, what percentage of teen drivers who died in a car crash were unbuckled?

22%

46%

51%

95%

38%

2. Drivers in New Hampshire who are found to be intoxicated or impaired will face a Class B misdemeanor charge as well as:

A fine of at least $500

Enrollment in an impaired driver care management program

Enrollment in an impaired driver’s education course

One year license suspension

All of the above

3. Under Jessica’s Law, a driver who does not remove all snow or ice from their car prior to driving can be charged with:

Distracted driving

Risky driving

Negligent driving

Aggressive driving

4. When a driver misses something in their visual eye line because they were focused on something else, this is known as:

Sensory deprivation

Distraction blindness

Inattentional blindness

Tunnel vision

Focused inattention

5. A first-time violation of the texting while driving law will result in a fine of:

$25

$75

$50

$100

$45

6. Speeding was a factor in what percentage of traffic fatalities in 2021?

25%

5%

95%

15%

29%

7. Sixty percent of all teenage passenger deaths occurred in vehicles driven by another teenager. During the first six months, drivers under 18 may have how many non-family passengers under 25 ride with them?

Two

One

Zero

Three

8. Being awake for 20 hours impairs drivers to the same level as a blood-alcohol content of 0.08, which equates to how many standard alcoholic drinks?

Five to six

Four to five

One to two

Two to three

9. If your vehicle skids on ice, first take your foot off the accelerator and then steer into the ______ direction the rear of your car is sliding

Same

Opposite

Find quiz answers on page 12.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.

ANSWER KEY

1. 51%

2. All of the above

3. Negligent driving

4. Inattentional blindness

5. $100

6. 29%

7. One

8. Four to five 

9. Same

Quiz questions on page 6.