AAA car safety check program comes to Hamilton High School

That was one of the many lessons being taught at the high school, according to Jeff Jones, an automotive service specialist with AAA, who helped students in the Career Technical Education Automotive Technology program, perform vehicle checks on cars belonging to Hamilton students.

“What we are doing is checking their cars, making sure they are safe. Things like tires having plenty of tread on them and the light work,” Jones said. “We want to make sure they can avoid a potential breakdown. We want to help students become familiar with how to handle routine maintenance on their car. We want to check to make sure the cars are roadworthy.”

Logan Hyde, 18, a senior student in the Career Technical Education Automotive Technology program, said the AAA event was beneficial to students for several reasons.

““The best part of today is checking for safety to prevent breakdowns. Today was good because it gets students who brought their car in more aware of what they need to check for when their car goes in to the shop and how to deal with maintenance once they get out of high school.”

Kellie O’Riordan, AAA traffic safety program manager, said the maintenance check program has been a hit at high schools and has also been popular with parents.

“Students who bring their vehicle in received a certificate for a free AAA Classic Associate Membership,” she said. “Students were able to join their parent’s membership for free. The response by students at Hamilton has been really good and the Automotive Technology students were terrific.”