DCH Auto Group Wins National Highway Safety Award for Teen Safe Driving Program

SOUTH AMBOY, N.J., Sept. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) presented one of four Peter K. O'Rourke Special Achievement Awards for notable achievements in highway safety to DCH Auto Group at the organization's annual meeting in Kansas City. GHSA represents state highway safety agencies across the country, and this prestigious award, named in honor of former GHSA Chairman and Californian Peter K. O'Rourke, recognizes DCH Auto Group for its commitment to educating teens about safe driving and for its innovative partnership with SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions).

"DCH is very honored to receive The Peter K. O'Rourke Special Achievement Award," said Shau-wai Lam, Chairman of DCH Auto Group, who accepted the award on the company's behalf. "This recognition of our efforts by the GHSA reaffirms our commitment to teen safe driving and our goal of reducing the number of car crashes involving teens."

DCH Auto Group is committed to helping teens drive safely with its Mindless Driving. Keep It Out Of Cars® initiative, an exclusive, long term, teen-focused, driving-safety community outreach program.  The focus is to keep "it" — as in, mindless driving — out of our teenagers' cars. This means not driving distracted, driving recklessly, or driving under the influence, to name a few. DCH's investment in teen safe driving represents a company-wide commitment to raising broad community awareness about the issue and assisting young people in each of the communities that DCH conducts business.  

The cornerstone of the program is DCH's affiliation with SADD. DCH Auto Group is the exclusive automotive dealer sponsor of SADD in New Jersey, southern New York, Fairfield, Connecticut, and southern California, and has agreed to help launch new SADD chapters in local area schools. Through this agreement, DCH Auto Group provides both financial support and support from its employees. To date, DCH has sponsored 27 SADD chapters in high schools in its service areas. These chapters range in size from 30 students to 150 students. DCH/SADD chapter activities have reached more than 50,000 students as well as hundreds of thousands of parents and family members and thousands of countless additional community members.

Recently DCH launched its latest teen safe driving public service advertising campaign, "InTEXTicated," to spotlight the dangers of texting and driving. The designs for this campaign were created and selected by students from DCH-sponsored SADD Chapters, showcasing just one way business and non-profit partners can work together to affect change in the communities in which they operate.  Phase II of this campaign will launch in December, 2010.

"We are also grateful to our non-profit partner in this effort, SADD," added Lam. "They recognized early on how dynamic and effective a partnership with us around this issue could be, and have been a source for enthusiasm and inspiration as we've worked together to educated teens about safe driving."

About DCH Auto Group

Headquartered in South Amboy, NJ, DCH Auto Group comprises 27 auto dealerships in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Southern California from Oxnard to San Diego, featuring a full line of new and pre-owned vehicles.  The company is highly invested in principles for success that value customers and employees.  DCH Auto Group is committed to giving back to the communities in which its dealerships operate and employees and customers live.  The company is dedicated to its teen safe driver program, "Mindless Driving. Keep It Out Of Cars," and is a sponsor of Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD).  For more information, please visit www.DCHAuto.com.

SOURCE DCH Auto Group