New England Chapter's Distracted Driving Skit Now On YouTube

In late March the New England Chapter posted their distracted driving project, a twelve minute mini-movie, on YouTube. In it, a young character gets a call and finds he has scored a great job interview, complete with perks like a company car. The news thrills his family because it will finally get him out away from the X-Box and out of the house.

At first everything is going well as the young man meets with each member of the company -- all of whom will make an unfortunate, preventative error that could alter the final outcome.

Mary Anne Moeri, PHH Arval, was inspired to write the skit after a terrible incident. "Last summer, some friends of ours lost their 19-year-old son to texting-while-driving; he hit a tree head-on. That got me thinking about young drivers." Moeri could relate because of her own family. "I have a teenage son and young people are so connected to their electronics, and can multitask so well. But when they make that transition from school to the workplace, they get a company car, and maybe they haven't had the orientation to make them aware of how dangerous (distracted driving) can be."

The video was shot by Rich Hamilton, GE Capital Fleet Services. Even though the first half of the video is very humorous, capturing what Moeri said was the "normal family dynamic," the aspect that caught Hamilton as well as other members after the New England board meeting was that what people were really watching was a dereliction of duty in-process.

"In the scene at the funeral home, you see his parents and the grandfathers, and each of the individuals that the job candidate met with...and then the three of them together," Hamilton said. "Any one of them could could have had an impact on what happened to that driver. There are too many times where (supervisors) are in such a rush to have them sign the driver policy, hand off the car keys, and send them on their way, we don't make sure they completely understand the policy and what they must do to comply with it."

Greg Asadoorian, Invensys, said that the project was a fun experience that played off of the chapter's earlier efforts. He encouraged other chapters to extend themselves similarly, but also said the New England Chapter is particularly suited to new ideas like making this video. "It is key for us to always keep our membership interested and coming to meetings. We focus very hard on that and this creation that Mary Anne started gets a lot of attention."

"(To do it) other chapters need to have the commitment the members and officers of the New England Chapter has. If they are lucky, they'll also have on their Board someone as creative as Mary Anne," Asadoorian said.

You can also view this video by clicking here. An extended interview with Greg Asadoorian, Rich Hamilton, and Mary Anne Moeri will be featured in a future issue of a NAFA publication!

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