Raiders star helps push importance of teens developing safe driving habits

Raiders tight end Brock Bowers is using his platform as a budding NFL star to promote the importance of safe driving for teens.

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for 15-to-18-year-olds in the U.S., with 2,611 people killed in crashes involving a teen driver in 2023, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

This week is National Teen Driver Safety Week, so the United Services Automobile Association (USAA) teamed up with Bowers and the Metropolitan Police Department to help push the importance of younger drivers practicing safety behind the wheel.

“I think it’s really important to the community,” Bowers said. “It’s a little dangerous out there, so I’m just trying to relay the message of safe driving and really get that message across to young people. When I first started driving, I was a little nervous, so it’s just building that confidence and being safe out there.”

Vegas drivers

Bowers is in his second year with the Raiders, and he said Las Vegas Valley drivers are more aggressive than in other cities he’s lived in.

“It’s a little crazier than some other spots I’ve been (to),” Bowers said. “But I drive a little more carefully here for sure just because I’m reacting to other people sometimes.”

UNLV sophomore Gavin Simmons, who originally hails from Oregon, said he agrees with Bowers on Southern Nevada being a different animal when it comes to driving.

“As a 19-year-old driver out here in Vegas, it’s really nice to see a professional athlete that a lot of us teenagers and young adults watch every Sunday speak about day-to-day stuff that we see,” Simmons said. “I moved about a year ago from Oregon, and I will say that driving out here in Vegas is a lot different from back home.”

End of year particularly deadly

Metro Lt. Cody Fulwiler said with the final months of the year filled with holiday celebrations, spreading the safety message to teens is as important now as any time of the year.

Between the months of October and December of 2024, Metro reported 47 fatalities as a result of motor vehicle crashes, Fulwiler said. Thus far in October, as of Friday, there have been eight traffic deaths, including two 12-year-olds, one on a bike hit by a bus and the other walking across the street in a crosswalk and struck by a suspected impaired driver.

“Tragically we’ve had a couple that were young juveniles — and any fatality is a tragedy, but as specifically when it’s a juvenile in that way,” Fulwiler said.

The event, held on Oct. 13 at UNLV, featured driving simulators from USAA that allowed users to see how being distracted or impaired affected their driving.

“Any time we can have an event with a simulator style to focus on our driving and how it can affect us without being on the roadway, we support it,” Fulwiler said. “With our teen drivers especially, they are inexperienced and they are on their cell phones a lot more than the adults are, because that’s what they are used to. If they can see those effects in a simulator fashion rather than being out on the roadway, it’s so much more important to do that.”

With the city’s 24-hour nature and the robust nightlife offering, Simmons believes there’s a correlation between some of the serious crashes seen and the prevalence of alcohol in the valley.

“The Vegas culture in itself has a lot to do with adults out there partying, having fun, but I think it has an influence on the amount of impaired accidents and fatalities,” Simmons said. “But having opportunities like this helps us young people see the actual numbers, and once we get to that age (21 years old) that it’s not really worth it (driving impaired).

Safe driving tips

Fulwiler also said it is important for parents and family members to push safe driving messages to teens, to stress the importance of remaining focused behind the wheel.

“It’s not just when you’re in the driver’s seat, but also having those conversations outside of the car about the impact that a tragedy like those 12-year-olds that were killed can happen to not only that family, but the person that’s driving or even around the first responders that come out there in the aftermath.”

As 2025 winds down Fulwiler suggests that not just teen divers, but all drivers, do the following:

■ Put the phones away, they can wait.

■ Don’t speed.

■ Be prepared for the time change and it getting darker out earlier in the evening.

■ Be aware of the increase of motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians out as the weather cools.

■ Never get behind the wheel under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

“If you’re going to be doing that type of stuff then please ride share, (stay) at one of the hotels we have across Las Vegas, but do not drive,” Fulwiler said. “Lives can be changed in an instant.”

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X. Send questions and comments to roadwarrior@reviewjournal.com.