The non-profit National Road Safety Foundation (NRSF) and Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, are looking for ideas from young people to help convince their peers of the dangers of distracted driving. The contest opened Jan. 7 for the 3rd annual Drive2Life PSA Contest. The winner will receive a $1,000 prize and an expenses-paid trip to New York to work with an award-winning TV director to turn his or her idea into a public service message that will be broadcast nationwide next May during Global Youth Traffic Safety Month.

“Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death among U.S. teens, with 5,000 killed annually,” said Michelle Anderson of The National Road Safety Foundation. Students in Grades 6 – 12 are invited to submit a PSA concept that addresses, in 30 seconds to as long as two minutes, the dangers of distracted driving. Ideas may be in the form of scripts, storyboards or treatments. No video will be accepted, and group entries are not accepted.

Visit www.nrsf.org/teenlane or www.scholastic.com/Drive2Life for more information about the competition and for the entry form and complete rules. Deadline for entries is Feb. 29, 2012 .