Lafayette Senior Wins ‘Safe Driver’ Competition

A 17-year-old senior at Lafayette High School has won this year’s “I’m A Safe Driver” campaign, and drove off with a 2004 Mitsubishi Eclipse after an awards ceremony Saturday.

Carrera Howie plans to major in Psychology when she attends the University of North Carolina at Wilmington this fall,.

“I never expected to win anything except maybe a T-shirt,” said Howie. When pressured, she admitted that the “psychology” of the “I’m A Safe Driver” program is apparently working. All of her driving skills she attributes to her father, John Howie, who said, “I just told her that you’re never in that big a hurry.”

The Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety, the St. Joseph Police Department and Cecil Myers Mitsubishi team up for the program which is in its fourth year.

The campaign reaches out to high schools in the St. Joseph metropolitan area by having them register at the beginning of the school year with a pledge to drive responsibly. Once a month, throughout the school year, registration cards are drawn for free prizes such as gift cards and fast food coupons.

Only students with a clean driving record can win. All winners (80 of them) are included in the final drawing for a free car. Since the monthly drawings ended in April, 13 of the eligible winners were disqualified because of poor driving records.

Additional information about the “I’m a Safe Driver” program can be found on the police department web page, http://www.stjoepd.info/ .