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Mural of Love

Youth. Kittatinny second-year students have been studying traffic statistics with the Nikhil Badlani Foundation and created a mural of love in honor of Nikhil Badami, an 11-year-old boy killed by a driver who ran a stop sign.

| 21 Feb 2020 | 02:42
    'Mural of Love'
    'Mural of Love' ( Photos courtesy of KRHS)
    Mural of Love
    Kittatinny Regional High School Students creat their Mural of Love.
    Kittatinny Regional High School Students creat their "Mural of Love."
    Mural of Love

Over the past several weeks, the Kittatinny Regional High School Sophomore class has been working with the Nikhil Badlani Foundation to create Traffic Safety Murals. On Friday, Feb. 14, Jessica DeMartini and her students held the unveiling of a one-of-a-kind mural.

Sangeeta Badlani, Nikhil’s mother, shared her personal story with the Kittatinny students recently. As part of their health related studies, the students have been researching statistics about driving. They shared some staggering statistics.

Each student worked in a group to design artwork for a specific category such as: Distracted Driving, Drinking and Driving, Graduated Drivers Licensing (GDL) Laws, Stay Alert, Drowsy Driving and Failing to Comply with Laws. With the assistance of Cindy Kline, every group's artwork was used to create the murals hung in our school as a constant reminder to Drive Smart and Save a Life.

Thanks to State Farm, in May 2020 a Public Service Announcement will run using the students’ artwork in the New Jersey Transit buses, light rail and train stations. Through this campaign, awareness is raised and the goal is not only to educate youth about safe driving practices, but also to make them ambassadors for traffic safety.

The mural is placed outside the main office near C wing. The school credits the Nikhil Badlani Foundation, and Cindy Kline for helping out. To learn more about the Nikhil Badlani Foundation, visit https://nikhilbadlanifoundation.org/

The top three predictors for fatalities are:
1) Non-use of seat belts.
2) Teen drivers.
3) Driving on roads with speed limits of 45-mph or higher.
Speeding is involved in one-third of all motor vehicle fatalities. Slow down and you could save a life.
Compared with other age groups, teens have among the lowest rates of seat belt use.
At any given daylight moment across America, approximately 416,000 drivers are using handheld cell phones.
Sending or receiving a text takes a driver’s eyes from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, the equivalent - at 55 mph - of driving the length of an entire football field, blind.
People talking and texting while driving are as impaired as when driving under the influence of alcohol.
Kittatinny students share driving stats:
-Every 7 seconds someone is hurt in a car crash.
-Each year 40,000 people die in traffic crashes, with a daily average of 100 crashes per day.. That number is equivalent to 14 regional jet planes crashing in a week.
-Teen drivers aged 16 to 19 are nearly three times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than drivers aged 20 years and older.
-Teens are at the highest risk of being involved in a car crash during their first 12 to 24 months of driving.