Kenneth Sturgill Allen County Public Defender explains, “There are no distractions, we’re not running around to other courthouses in other counties, all of our time is devoted to one thing. That has allowed us to be available for the courts whenever they need us for scheduling purposes which makes things more efficient. We specialize in one thing, and we do it well. So, we’re able to communicate with the clients better and get them in a position that they’re comfortable to make a decision moving forward with on how they want to dispose of the case.”

Students at Allen East High School got to sit behind the wheel of a distracted driving simulation to see the real-life consequences of what it’s like to take your eyes off the road. According to the CDC, car crashes are the number one cause of death for teens in the country, and most of them involve reckless and distracted driving. It’s this preventable health epidemic that the students in SADD are trying to fight.

75,411. That's the number of crashes since 2015 that the Ohio State Highway Patrol says have involved one or more drivers who were distracted. The OSHP is joining five other state patrols to focus on distracted driving during the month of October.