Story and photos by Milo Zinser
From April 20-24, NCHS hosted the 2026 edition of Safe Driving Week, an annual five-day event that teaches students to drive safely and legally. Organized by the Parent Faculty Association, Safe Driving Week was put on in cooperation with the New Canaan Police Department and School Resource Officer Shane Gibson.
Monday’s kickoff event took place in the cafeteria, with a focus on the dangers posed by distracted driving. The PFA set up a table and gave out donuts to students who pledged “I ‘donut’ text and drive.”
Tuesday focused on the most dangerous times of day to drive, which are 9pm to 6pm, and encouraged students to set a curfew for themselves. According to the CDC, the fatal crash rate at night is roughly three times higher among teenage drivers than adults.
Tuesday also saw a visit from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s Sharing the Road with Large Trucks program, which has educated tens of thousands of teen drivers since its launch in 2017. Statistics also show that upwards of 75 percent of vehicle accidents involving heavy trucks are caused by teenage drivers, with a primary cause being a lack of driver education. The program brought a tractor trailer to the NCHS parking lot, allowing students to experience the truck’s blind spots firsthand.
On Wednesday, NCPD officers were present in the lobby during the lunch period with safe driving goggles, allowing students to experience the sensation of being impaired. The event specifically aimed to combat driving while under the influence of alcohol or marijuana, the two most common causes of intoxication among teenagers. Officers performed field sobriety tests, challenging students to remain balanced while walking in a straight line wearing the goggles.
United States Paralympic curler Steve Emt visited NCHS on Thursday for an assembly organized by Choices Matter, an educational organization dedicated to teaching safe driving to teens. Emt was a college basketball player for West Point and UConn, and won a Big East conference championship with the Huskies in 1994. The next year, he was involved in a car crash while driving drunk, and was left paralyzed from the waist down. Emt’s speech to NCHS students emphasized how one choice can have lifelong consequences, as well as the importance of resilience and accepting help from others.
Safe Driving Week concluded on Friday with a mock car crash, staged by the NCPD, New Canaan Fire Department, and New Canaan EMS. Featuring a real wrecked car, the event simulated a real emergency services response to a vehicular accident. The simulation was cast by the NCHS Theatre Department, with the teens in the crash played by students Rowan Richey Elliott, Soraya Breed, Evie Morales and Henyerson Tolentino. Rowan, a senior who played the role of a drunk driver, said that the simulation felt far more real than he expected it to. “When the cops started hovering and treating it like a real scenario, I got freaked out,” he said. His character was given a field sobriety test by police officers, and then “arrested” and put into a police cruiser. To heighten the realism, Rowan wore impairment goggles, and he and the other students put on fake blood.
The simulation drove home the grave consequences that impaired driving can have, with the passenger played by Evie dying of her injuries. It also served as a valuable practice exercise for emergency services, allowing first responders to practice life-saving vehicle rescue skills.
