Rocky Hill's Juhi Gupta Finishes Term on DMV Safe Driving Task Force As Judge

Rocky Hill resident Juhi Gupta wanted to make a difference in her community so she became a teen advisor for the Department of Motor Vehicles. that led to her becoming a judge in the DMV's annual video contest. She is now appearing in a video for parents and teens about safe driving that will be sent to all of the driving schools in the state. 

"I was on the advisory group for two years then I was one of the advisors that was asked to help them with the contest," said Gupta, who recently graduated from Mercy High School in Middletown and will attend Bentley University in the fall. "I don't have any background in video but I just wanted to help my community and that's how it started."

Gupta also got to help select her replacement on the advisory board and she picked Mercy student and Rocky Hill native Katherine Cimini. See related story here. 

The video features teens Gupta of Rocky Hill, Luke Edwards of Madison and Daniyal Khan of Berlin. In addition, advisory committee members Lt. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police, Lt. Garfield Green of the DMV and Chief John Daly of the Southington Police and President of the Connecticut Police Chief's Association are also featured.

DMV will be sending the video to driving schools statewide to show during the state-required two-hour parent-teen training segment for obtaining a driver's license. In this segment parents and teens together hear about a variety of safety measures and laws to follow.

The video covers the state's teen-specific driving laws, such as curfews, passenger restrictions and ban on cell phone use. It also reviews penalties for violating them as well as tips for keeping safe behind the wheel. The video shortly will be copied to DVD and mailed to all driving schools in the state.

I started out just wanting to help the community," Gupta said. "I would have never figured that it would become what it has become. We have met with Gov. Malloy and top officials in the state. Now we are in the video and have been interviewed for television. But, I'm proud of the way it has been so popular."

Gupta said picking the winner for the video contest was not easy. The winner was from Willimantic's Arts at the Capitol Theater. There were 128 student-team submissions that involved a total of 478 students statewide, representing 32 high schools. 

"There were so many good videos but we thought this one was one that would stick with teenagers," she said. "We went with a video with a rap in it. Some of the officials were worried that people might not take it seriously but we thought the teens would remember the rap. It is also the kind of music a lot of kids are listening to so we thought it would connect with teens."