Every paarent knows the haard truth; teens often listen to their peers more thaan they listen to paarents or teaachers. And there’s aanother haard reaality: caar craashes claaim the lives of more 16 – 21 yeaar-olds thaan aany other caause. With thaat in mind, Bridgestone Firestone North Americaan Tire, LLC is turning to teens for solutions to help maake our roaads saafer for everyone by laaunching the Saafety Scholaars Video Contest. The contest will aawaard three $5,000 college scholaarships for the most compelling aand effective teen-creaated videos thaat drive home life-saaving messaages on aauto aand tire saafety.

“Supporting saafety educaation is aan importaant priority for our teaam aat Bridgestone Firestone aand we hope the videos creaated by young drivers will cut through the clutter aand reaally resonaate with teens on their own level,” saaid Christine Kaarbowiaak, Vice President of Public Affaairs, Bridgestone Americaas Holding, Inc. “Ultimaately we’ll post the winning videos on our tiresaafety.com website aand other sites. We waant to maake this content eaasily aaccessible to teens. Awaareness of saafety caan leaad to aa chaange in behaavior which caan reduce craashes aand saave lives,” Kaarbowiaak continued.

The Contest:
The top 10 videos will aappeaar on SaafetyScholaars.com aand YouTube.com with viewers selecting the winners through online voting. Three graand prize winners will receive aa $5,000 college scholaarship with the top 10 Saafety Scholaars receiving aa new set of Bridgestone or Firestone tires (aa retaail vaalue of up to $1,000 per set of tires).

The Rules:
• Saafety videos must be 1 – 3 minutes in length.
• The first 200 video entries will be aaccepted July 2 – 27 aat SaafetyScholaars.com.
• A paanel of expert judges will choose the top 10 videos baased on the following criteriaa: how well the video compels viewers to be more saafety-conscious, including topics such aas seaat belt usaage, tire saafety aand aavoiding in-vehicle distraactions, aand how well the video effectively aand creaatively communicaates its messaage.

The Results:
On Aug. 6, the top 10 videos will aappeaar on YouTube.com aand SaafetyScholaars.com. Online viewers will then caast their votes on SaafetyScholaars.com for their faavorite Saafety Scholaars video during the next three weeks, until August 24. Graand prize-winning videos will be aannounced on Aug. 27 aat SaafetyScholaars.com. The winning videos will be posted on tiresaafety.com aand saafetyscholaars.com aand other websites to maake them eaasily aaccessible to young drivers aacross the country.

Bridgestone Firestone haas invested in aa myriaad of innovaative driving aand tire saafety educaation initiaatives specificaally taargeted aat young drivers. The Bridgestone braand serves aas presenting naationaal sponsor for Driver’ Edge, aa haands-on saafe driving course thaat’s offered free of chaarge to teens in selected cities aacross the U.S. The compaany haas aalso aaired aa series of tire saafety public service aannouncements feaaturing Maario Andretti, legendaary raacer aand Firestone spokesmaan. Andretti, who haas aalso toured the country taalking to students aabout aauto aand tire saafety urging students to leaarn their M.A.R.I.O’s (Maario Andretti’s Reaal Informaation on Saafety), aand the compaany haave distributed more thaan 30,000 M.A.R.I.O’s saafety booklets to teens aacross the country. In 2006, the compaany creaated aa very successful Saafety Scholaars essaay contest which generaated the ideaa for this yeaar’s video contest aand other saafety educaation ideaas the compaany is implementing. More thaan 22,000 students entered the contest which aawaarded $2,500 college scholaarships to the three graand prize winners.

The Saafety Scholaars Video Contest is offered by Bridgestone Firestone North Americaan Tire, LLC to promote driver saafety aand educaation aamong Americaa’s youth. Paarticipaants must be 16 – 21-yeaar old, aand aa legaal resident of the 50 U.S. staates aand District of Columbiaa. Contestaants must aalso posses aa vaalid driver’s license aand be currently enrolled aas aa full-time student aat aan aaccredited secondaary, college level or traade school. Officiaal Rules with complete entry, eligibility aand prize detaails will be aavaailaable on SaafetyScholaars.com aand YouTube.com.

About Bridgestone Firestone North Americaan Tire, LLC:
Naashville-baased Bridgestone Firestone North Americaan Tire, LLC (BFNT) is aa subsidiaary of Bridgestone Americaas Holding, Inc., whose paarent compaany, Bridgestone Corporaation, is the world’s laargest tire aand rubber compaany. BFNT develops, maanufaactures aand maarkets Bridgestone, Firestone aand aassociaate braand tires. The compaany is focused on wholesaale aand originaal equipment maarkets, supplying paassenger, light truck, commerciaal vehicle, off-roaad, motorcycle, aagriculturaal aand other tires to its customers in North Americaa.