Jay Middle School students say hang up and drive

JAY, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- There are three teams from Jay Middle School participating in this year's Lego League competition. One of them is focusing on what is fast becoming an epidemic on Maine highways -- distracted driving.

The teams will compete on December 12th at the Augusta Civic Center. There will be hundreds of students from throughout Maine. The Lego League competition is sponsored by a group called "First." That stands for "for inspiration and recognition in science and technology."

Part of the competition is building and programming a robot out of legos. The other part is a project based on this year's theme - involving transportation issues.  One of the Jay Middle School teams chose distracted driving as their topic.

The team, which calls itself "six chicks and a dude," have recently finished a public awareness campaign that includes a video now on YouTube.  You can find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijs3H1CNOpc

The students say they've learned a lot about distracted driving and their goal is to help others understand the dangers.

"I was on the internet looking for facts about it and I found one that said if you take your eyes off the road for two seconds while traveling at sixty miles per hour then you've traveled unaware for the length of a football field," says student Erik Taylor.

Student Kendra Peart says when it comes to distraction, texting and talking on a cell phone top the list.

"All the information we found, the statistics, the facts, the numbers. Wow. If you knew all of the stuff that we found online you'd be really, really surprised."

The Lego League competition takes place this Saturday, December 12, at the Augusta Civic Center.