Walworth County Sheriff, District Attorney among guest speakers
By Tom Ganser
Correspondent
Representatives of Big Foot, Delavan-Darien, East Troy, Elkhorn Area, Whitewater and Williams Bay high schools gathered April 21 at the Lake Lawn Resort in Delavan for the sixth Annual Operation Click Banquet and Car Give Away for the Walworth County chapter. Joining them were law enforcement personnel from local police departments and the Walworth County Sheriff’s Department.
Based on surveys determining that at least 95 percent of student drivers at the high school use a seatbelt and the submission of an annual report, two students from each school were selected to attempt to start the light bar atop a Chevrolet Volt in order to win the car.
Errin Penniman from Delavan-Darien and Student of the Year for the Walworth County chapter, also qualified for a chance to win the car. Delavan-Darien High School also won Video of the Year for the 20 Wisconsin and 20 Illinois high schools that participated in Operation Click.
The video is based on the impact of Kaitlyn Vegter’s automobile accident in January 2016 as a result of her looking at her phone while driving. Vegter is a 2013 graduate of Delavan-Darien High School. The video can be viewed at youtube.com and searching Delavan-Darien High School, Operation Click 2016-2017.
At the banquet, after the keys drawn by Haley Monroe and Avery Lettenberger from Williams Bay High School didn’t start the light bar, Tyler Marinkovic and Katie Kuhtz from Whitewater High School were next in line, and the lights blazed on as soon as Marinkovic turned the key, extending the record of a WHS student starting the car for the third time over the course of six years.
Other students selected as finalists included Jaxson Sawtelle and Madalyn Krablean (Delavan-Darien), Jacque Christman and Hailey Davis (Big Foot), Lane Williams and Isabella Ewan (Elkhorn) and Hope Schneider and Chase Coleman (East Troy).
To participate in Operation Click students sign a pledge to remain enrolled at school without discipline issues, to wear a seat belt at all times as a driver or passenger and encourage all passengers to wear seat belts, never text while driving, drive after drinking alcoholic beverage or ride in a vehicle with a driver who has consumed alcoholic beverages.
Encouraging words
In opening the event, Sean McGrath, President of Operation Click since its founding in 1998, said, “Operation Click is a way to try to change the teenage mindset when they’re behind the wheel. We provide incentives to give to students for being good drivers and to create those safe driving habits.”
Operation Click began as a seatbelt awareness program, but with changing times and technology, added to its focus the importance of driving sober, avoiding texting and driving and the dangers of distracted driving.
McGrath said texting while driving is “a huge problem,” as is distracted driving in general.
“You’re responsible and you put your phone down. However, that doesn’t stop the text from coming in and your phone dings. And what do you do? You respond, you react, you grab the phone,” he said.
McGrath told the students they needed to “go back to your school and help us. You need to be the cheerleaders for us. You need to be our champions and share this with your classmates. They need to hear it from you rather than from the adults, rather than from the faculty, rather than from law enforcement. The only way we can try and take care of the problem of texting or being on the cell phone while driving is to recondition ourselves.”
For the most part, he said, traffic citations, despite their cost and effect on driving status, are not enough to change behavior.
Nick Jarmusz, Director of Public Affairs for AAA Wisconsin, a major sponsor for Operation Click and a resource for educational materials related to safe driving behaviors, said teen traffic safety is a “huge priority for Triple A and will continue to be in the future.”
“Even though only one of you is going to drive away with a car, all of you here today are winners, in that by signing the pledge and fulfilling your pledge to become eligible to win the car, you have all won another year of life and another chance to continue to work towards your dreams,” Jarmusz said.
Referring to recent survey data and crash statistics, Jarmusz pointed out teen drivers are no longer the most dangerous drivers on the road right now. But once in their 20s, “they start to think, ‘Maybe it’s OK for me to start to engage in some of these behaviors, like texting or doing things behind the wheel.’ So, we see that people in their 20s and 30s are the ones who are most likely to use their phones behind the wheel, most likely to drink before they get behind the wheel, and most likely to be in a crash and most likely to die in a crash.”
“You have made it through a pretty dangerous period… But please don’t lose sight of how dangerous all of these things are and continue to follow the promises that you made in your Operation Click contract after you leave school, after you leave home and are out on your own as well,” Jarmusz concluded.
Walworth County Sheriff Kurt Picknell began his speech by saying, “We’re in the room, we’re spending time with you today, and we’re spending time with you throughout the year deliberately to have a positive experience with you, to change your behaviors to allow you to see what our perspective is, and some of the horrific calls we go to that stay in our memory for the rest of our life.”
He also pointed out none of those present were really there for the lunch.
“It’s to invest in you. We’re looking for a return on the investment that we make in you, similar to your teachers, your faculty and your parents,” Picknell said.
He pointed out good habits, when worked on deliberately, turn into routines that eventually become a form of unconscious competence, like double checking to make sure the seat belt is fastened.
“So when your phone vibrates or rings in the car, the behavior that you are building on, and the routine that you’re embedding, will tell you unconsciously what not to do, or what to do,” he said.
“We here for you. We want positive experiences with you and we want you to have a healthy and long life,” Picknell said, followed by the sharing of this quote by Matatma Ghandi: ‘Your beliefs becomes your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits come your values. And your values become your destiny.”
Walworth County Deputy Dan Nelson and an Operation Click director, took the opportunity to applaud local law enforcement present for their support and encouragement for programs including Operation Click.
“Time and budgets are tight, and manpower is limited but programs like this need that, and I want to thank you for making this as successful as it is because of you,” Nelson said.
He also thanked the police school resource liaison officers for their role in the Operation Click program.
Nelson also recognized Sgt. Tim Otterbacher of the Walworth County Sheriff’s Department on his impending retirement later this week, presenting him with his very own toy patrol car.
Joseph Davis, Regional Program Manager for Southeast Wisconsin, Wisconsin Department of Transportation, shared his thoughts on the leadership dimension for students participating in the Operation Click program.
“As you continue to be involved in Operation Click the most important thing is seize the opportunity to speak to power and seize the opportunity to speak truth, because amongst your peers, they’re looking for leadership, and that leadership is deep down inside of you… When you know you are valued, when you know that people are looking out for you, that’s when leadership really rises outside of you,” Davis said.
Zeke Wiedenfeld, District Attorney for Walworth County, said he’s somebody who sees the benefit and progress Operation Click is making because in his job he spends a lot of time meeting with people who have been injured in traffic crashes.
“I’ve met with parents who bring the ashes of their children when they meet with me. I explain to jurors and members of the public what happened during these horrible crashes. It’s amazing the range of emotions you see in people; people who are angry, people who are sad, people who are so stunned they don’t even know what to say. They are emotional meetings and they are hard meetings and usually the big question everybody has is ‘Why did this happen? Can you tell me why this happened?’” he said.
“There really isn’t a good reason. I can explain the speed of the vehicle and how it went off the road and how the rollover occurred… because nobody really goes out and intended for these types of things to happen. Nobody says, ‘Well, I’m going to text while I drive today and cross the center line and strike a vehicle.’ Nobody says, ‘I’m not going to buckle up in the vehicle today and I hope I get ejected from the vehicle if there’s a crash.’ Nobody goes out with that intent to commit a crime or to have one of these tragedies occur, but they do happen,” Wiedenfeld said.
He said he often finds himself explaining to juries, and to those present at the banquet, is it all comes down to choices that were made.
“It comes down to those little things like not taking a phone call, not checking your phone when it makes that noise, buckling up your seat belt, making choices about alcohol and drugs. It always can be factored back to one choice where someone could have done something different and someone could have avoided one of these tragedies,” Wiedenfeld said.
He said he appreciates so Operation Click and what is being done to promote it throughout the community “because it’s encouraging people to make those good choices and preventing these tragedies from occurring. Please keep doing what you’re doing because you are making a difference,” Wiedenfeld said.
Kunes Country of Delavan once again donated the car. Tom Forh, general manager at Kunes’ Ford Lincoln store in Delavan, thanked the students for “doing your part and deciding to make the pledge to drive safe in a day where we’re all attached to our cell phone at our hip, and it’s hard to put it down for five minutes, let alone when you’re driving.”
“This is one of the events where the Kunes Auto Group can really give back to the community as much as possible because of what you’re doing,” Fohr said.
For more information visit www.operationclick.com.
