The Cal State Long Beach Journalism and Public Relations Department sponsored “Survive The Drive,” a campaign event for automobile passenger safety at the Jackie Robinson Academy in Long Beach Wednesday.
The event covered the “three B’s”: buckling up, using a booster seat and sitting in the backseat. Maintaining a theme, there were three activity stations at the event.
The first station gave students the opportunity to learn how to use General Motors’ On-Star feature and simulate an emergency call.
“Our goal was to garner media attention and I think we accomplished that,” said Armando Vazquez-Ramos, a CSULB Chicano/Latino studies faculty member. He explained that the team had the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the Grunion Gazette and other local media publications cover the event.
The second station involved the use of weight-appropriate mannequins to learn how to properly use booster seats and car seats in accordance with California state laws.
The third station was a roleplay setup where participants were tested on their knowledge of where to sit in a vehicle and how to buckle up.
“We provided a lot of hands-on activities,” said Vazquez-Ramos. “I think our target audience being underserved minority students. I think a lot of them were taken back by that.”
The Long Beach Police Department also presented information about the importance of sitting in the back seat during every car ride.
“Our goals are to target automobile safety to tweens, students ages 11-14, a previously unreached target group for seat belt and back seat safety,” said Geoffrey Kutnick, a Bateman participant and journalism major, via e-mail.
