Bays Honored for Dedication in Educating Young Drivers 

Brad Bays, a Sandusky High School educator and driver training instructor, has been recognized by the Governor’s Traffic Safety Advisory Commission (GTSAC) for his dedication to driver education in the school district.  
Bays was presented with an Outstanding Achievement Award on Wednesday during the GTSAC Awards ceremony as part of the 27 th annual Michigan Traffic Safety Summit in East Lansing, hosted by the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning. 
The GTSAC honors organizations, programs and individuals for distinguished involvement in traffic safety.  
Bays, who has taught driver education to Sandusky High School students since 2012, operates his own driving school. The high school has been taking on traffic safety initiatives for several years, often conducting mock crash investigations.  
Bays provided oversight to students as they created a distracted driving campaign and video for their entry in the student-led “Strive for a Safer Drive” (S4SD) competition. S4SD is a teen safe-driving initiative aimed at reducing serious traffic crashes, injuries and fatalities among teen drivers. 
Throughout the distracted driving awareness campaign, students had the opportunity to use driving simulators to experience what it was like to be a distracted driver. Covenant Health System provided the simulators to allow students the opportunity to try the simulators.
Students wrapped up the campaign with a 50/50 raffle and donated the proceeds to The Chief Dave Hall First Responders’ Fund, which brings education and training to first responders in the community.  
The GTSAC was formed in 2002 to serve as the state’s forum for identifying key traffic safety challenges and developing and implementing plans to address those issues. The commission includes representatives from the departments of State Police, Transportation, Education, State, and Health & Human Services, as well as the Office of the Governor, the Aging and Adult Services Agency, and the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning. There are also three representatives from local government appointed by the governor.