Drive SAFE Offers Words for Teens to Live By

When your teen takes over the wheel of the car for the first time, parental anxiety kicks into high gear. We think our teens are responsible people, but we worry about their inexperience. We’re also a little concerned because we know their friends are learning to drive too.

Sabrina and David Hall of Fullerton have a teen son and daughter who will be driving in the next few years. But it was the death of a teen from a family they’d never met that raised their awareness about teen driving dangers. The Halls were jolted last May when they learned about the death of 18-year-old Donny Bridgman.

He was the Newport Harbor High School student killed after the driver of a Chevy Blazer crammed with teens lost control along Irvine Avenue in Newport Beach and crashed. Two others were injured. Several involved said later that most of them, except for the driver, had been drinking and that they had used fake IDs to obtain alcohol.

“That crash had a dramatic impact on us, as it did a lot of parents,” David Hall said.

The Halls looked at each other upon hearing the news and agreed they wanted to do something about it. Really get involved.

So they went to their alma mater, Fullerton High School, to see what could be done. The result is a nonprofit group the two have founded called Drive SAFE. It began as a bumper sticker program to promote safe driving among teens. But it has expanded to include plans for a host of safe-driving programs.

The theme behind Drive SAFE is that parents need to get more involved in assuring their teens’ safe driving.

Tonight is Drive SAFE’s kickoff event: an assembly at the historic Louis E. Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton (7 to 9 p.m.) for parents and their teens. Students from several high schools are expected to attend, but it’s free and open to anyone.

The Fullerton High Jazz Band will perform, a variety of experts will talk about driving, and the high school’s drama department will put on a short play called “Pizza, Party and a Moonlight Ride.”

I had the privilege of watching these energetic teens rehearse on Monday. They’ve got a dramatic point to make. This is not a drama with a happy ending. But, as the Halls point out, real life has tragic endings too.

There is also a special speaker for the evening. Danielle Bridgman, 17, will talk about her brother Donny.

“I just want people to know something about who my brother was,” she told me.

It was the Bridgman family that reached out to the Halls once they learned what the Halls were trying to put together.

“We’ve cried and talked many times,” Sabrina Hall said of her relationship with Donny Bridgman’s mother, Vickie. “I really think this is helping the Bridgmans with their healing.” Danielle, sitting next to her, agreed.

The Halls have lots of other plans: car rallies involving both parents and teens, and a dramatic presentation at schools reenacting actual teen crashes.

So far, the Halls are already out about $5,000. How much more they can do, they said, depends on whether they can come up with corporate sponsors.

“There is just not enough done to help make teens aware of driving dangers,” David Hall said. “Too often driver’s training is turned over to the high school coach as a second job. And they aren’t always up to date on the latest information.”

Besides Danielle Bridgman, speakers for the night include Reidel Post, spokeswoman for Mothers Against Drunk Driving; Denise Medina, spokeswoman for the California Highway Patrol; and Municipal Judge W. Michael Hayes. Sabrina Hall said Hayes will talk about “the consequences of seeing him in court.”

Vickie and Bruce Bridgman, parents of Donny Bridgman, will attend tonight.

“It’s absolutely imperative that teenagers know that this is an important issue,” Vickie Bridgman told me. “We have got to do everything we can to make them understand the danger.”

She had to fight the tears when she added: “It’s so important that we try to do something to keep other parents from hurting the way we are. This is a long, long struggle for us.”

My own son will begin driving sometime this year. He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s going to get to know a lot more about the Halls and what they have to offer.

Tentsville: Last week, I mentioned the old tent cities in Laguna Beach, in the pre-motel 1920s, where for a few dollars you could get a tent with a hardwood floor near the beach. It brought back fond memories for reader Galeta Brewer.

“In the summer of ‘29, a friend and I spent two fun-filled weeks in the tent city on the corner of Broadway and Pacific Coast Highway. Not much time in the tent but lots of time on the beach.”

The column also quoted a letter from Esther Sharp about Laguna life in the 1920s. Turns out Galeta Brewer and some friends once spent a weekend there, renting a cabin from the Sharp family on PCH. I wish I’d been there.

Getting a Fair Plant: Maybe you’re one of those people who didn’t know that the fuchsia is the official flower for the city of Costa Mesa. (Count me among those who didn’t know that cities even had official flowers.) The Orange County Fairgrounds people point out that anyone can enter its fuchsia growing contest for the fair (July 10-26).

You have to grow the seedlings you pick up at the fairgrounds, beginning Friday through Jan. 25. There will be small cash awards for the winning entries.

Wrap-Up: If you attend tonight’s safe-driving awareness show at Plummer Auditorium, you’ll find 23 empty seats up front. They will represent the 23 teenagers killed in Orange County the last year through vehicle accidents.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711 or by e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com