BOSTON — The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) announced the winners of this year's Annual Safe Streets Smart Trips High School Video Contest.

 

This year, 43 videos were submitted from high schools across the Commonwealth and six videos receiving honors were shown during MassDOT's 2022 Moving Together Conference which was held on Tuesday, Nov. 1. 

 

The contest, which began in 2014, encourages high school students to showcase their understanding of roadway safety across all travel modes to try to decrease pedestrian and bicyclist injuries and fatalities. The contest serves as an initiative of the Massachusetts Strategic Highway Safety Plan to promote safe walking, bicycling, and driving behaviors within the Commonwealth.

 

"The Safe Streets Smart Trips High School Video Contest is an important part of MassDOT's safety education efforts," said Transportation Secretary and CEO Jamey Tesler. "The contest gets young people thinking about ways to teach each other about road safety and this peer-to-peer teaching is highly effective. Students from across the Commonwealth take time to create informational videos that encourage people walking, biking and driving to pay attention to their surroundings, obey traffic laws, act courteously and role model safe behavior since doing that will save lives and prevent injuries."

 

The video contest was open to all Massachusetts high school students and featured freshman/sophomore and junior/senior award categories. Per contest guidelines, this year students were asked to write and produce a 30-60 second video focused on interpreting the various signs and pavement markings that are on roadways and in school zones and explaining their meaning. 

 

The prize award categories and high school recipients are as follows:

 

Grand Prize

 

Freshman/Sophomore category: Savannah Bond, Asher Salmon Hansen, Yuli Ziblat, and Josie Lee from Newton North High School. Video Title: "Signs Are Your Friend"

 

Junior/Senior category: Kayla Dulac and Briana Dulac from Millis High School. Video title: "Can't Stop Motion"

 

Honorable Mention

 

Freshman/Sophomore category: Siena Hesbach, Emaline Knight, and Katherine Reeves-Kroff from Maynard High School. Video Title: "Kids Crossing"

 

Junior/Senior category: Nathaniel Jacquart, Robert Magner, and William Bouvier from Dartmouth High School.

Video Title: "Wacky Driving Made Safer" 

 

Runners-up

 

Freshman/Sophomore category: Ella Gates and Isabella Rebello from Dartmouth High School.

Video Title: "Dartmouth High School News – Road Safety" 

 

Junior/Senior category: Chloe Mills, Casey Brewer, Zach Troderman, Logan Shapiro, and Jake Braverman from Framingham High School. Video Title: "Speeding Kills"

 

Grand prize, runner-up, and honorable mention videos in each category (Freshman/Sophomore and Junior/Senior) were chosen by a MassDOT panel. Video creators received prizes including $600 Amazon gift cards for the grand prize videos and $300 Amazon gift cards for the runner-up videos. Top videos may also be used in future safety campaigns.

 

The videos are scheduled to be posted soon on the mass.gov site.

 

MassDOT's 2022 Moving Together Conference was held in-person and virtually. The purpose of the conference was to share transportation best practices, present topical issues including climate resilient infrastructure, provide updates on projects such as the creation of pedestrian and bicycle paths, showcase new technology and equipment, and convene to address challenges such as the recent increase in roadway fatalities in Massachusetts.