QUINCY, ILL. -- This month, safety advocates hope to reduce the number of accidents distracted drivers cause.

One initiative is the  2011 Operation Teen Safe Driving Program. The innovative program was modeled after the Ford Motor Company's Ford Driving Skills for Life teen safety program. This is its fourth year, involving more than 100 schools in the state.

Recently, Quincy High School was selected as one of the 35 winners statewide. QHS competed against more than 105 high schools.

Students were given driving information and statistics from the state that they have to present to the community.This year, students incorporated the number of driving related student deaths for the month of February, 308 nationwide.

"I think one of the things we do really well is we have assemblies where people come and talk about their life experiences, like bad driving decisions, and we just drill the message over and over again and we hand out T-shirts to students that has our statistic on them that talks about the number of students that die each year," said QHS Sophomore Catherine Don, one of the organizers for the school's drive safe presentation.

"We took a big picture at the end. We had them all group up in the bleachers and it showed just how many kids we'd lose at the high school if they were in accidents like that," said Jessica Bagby, an organizer and  senior at QHS.

"I definitely feel like we got a good response. Usually in assemblies there's a lot of chit chat and this time, nobody was talking. It was dead silent," said Don.

As one of the regional winners, these QHS students will get to take a ride with professional drivers at Ford Motor Company's 'Ride and Drive' event in Springfield this week.

You'll remember that KHQA is currently devoted to our Just Let it Ring campaign.   Not only is it important for us to recognize the risks involved with texting and driving, but we also want to help reward those who do the right thing ... drive now, text later.  Visit our campaign page here to take the pledge to Just Let it Ring and you will be entered to win a free car and other fun prizes!