As a personal injury law firm, Loncar Lyon Jenkins has seen many car accident victims hurt by distracted drivers. Today, the most common form of distraction is texting while driving. To raise awareness about this issue, we launched the Distraction-Free Driving PSA Scholarship.

Entrants were asked to create a public service announcement that highlighted the risks of distracted driving. The winning entry would earn a $2,500 prize. This year, Annika Pierre Michel, a student at the University of Maryland, College Park, received the award.

Michel created her PSA using online tools and shared it on YouTube. The video opens with a group of young people inside a car. The driver is distracted by texting and casual conversation. After a sudden crash, the screen displays statistics about texting and driving.

In the final scene, Michel shares practical tips on how drivers can avoid distractions and stay focused on the road.

Those tips include pulling over to a safe location before operating your phone or using hands-free devices. Short and to the point, her PSA is effective at showcasing the dangers and the sad universality of texting while driving.

Michel on the Making of Her PSA

Annika Pierre Michel is not a maker of PSAs by trade. At school, she is studying finance. “I might want to be a financial advisor or a financial analyst,” she told us during an interview. Still, she realized that texting while driving is a huge concern for everyone in our society, prompting her to take action.

The most surprising thing Michel learned while creating her PSA is that most people have a sense that car accidents due to distractions are tragedies that will never affect them. “The main thing I learned,” she said, “is that a lot of us think this is something that only happens to others.” Her dive into the statistics of texting while driving, though, revealed that the issue is more widespread than she thought.

Loncar Lyon Jenkinsis proud to award Annika Pierre Michel with the 2021 Distraction-Free Driving PSA Scholarship.