Dontay Muhammad, 19, of Hartselle, Ala., has been selected as the winner of an Instagram contest sponsored by Cooper Tire and the National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) as part of their new Tread Wisely™ teen driver and tire safety campaign. As the winner, Muhammad will receive a new set of four Cooper tires.

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Dontay Muhammad, 19, of Hartselle, Ala., was selected as the winner of an Instagram contest sponsore ...

Dontay Muhammad, 19, of Hartselle, Ala., was selected as the winner of an Instagram contest sponsored by Cooper Tire and the National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) as part of their new Tread Wisely™ teen driver and tire safety campaign. As the winner, Muhammad will receive a new set of four Cooper tires. (Photo: Business Wire)

The Tread Wisely contest asked teens to get creative and snap a photo of themselves with their tires and upload the photo to Instagram using #TreadWisely1. The goal of the effort was to prompt young people, ages 15 to 25, to be more aware of their tires and to learn how to properly maintain them, enhancing safety on the road. More than 300 entries were received, and per contest rules, one winner was randomly selected from among the first 200 entries.

“I learned about the Tread Wisely program and contest from my mom,” said Muhammad. “I was excited to enter, so I asked her to take my picture kneeling next to one of my tires. Tires are one of the most important parts of a car. It takes me almost an hour to drive to school, so I need tires that will get me to school and back home safely. Since I drive a lot every day, I’m really happy about winning a new set of tires.” Muhammad added that because he owns a vehicle and has a passion for driving, he understands the importance of checking his tire pressure and doing overall maintenance regularly.

“We are proud to have established Tread Wisely as our signature philanthropy cause at Cooper Tire,” said Anne Roman, Vice President of Communications & Public Affairs for the company. “Car crashes remain a leading cause of death for teens and young adults, and it is important to address this issue by using social media and other methods to reach them directly with safety messages delivered on the channels they are using daily. It was exciting for Cooper and NOYS to see hundreds of entries in the Tread Wisely Instagram contest as awareness of the role that tires play in overall driver safety is critical. After all, tires are the only thing connecting drivers and their cars to the road,” she said.

More information is available at www.TreadWisely.org. Young people are encouraged to join and continue the discussion about driver and tire safety taking place on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at www.facebook.com/treadwisely1, www.instagram.com/treadwisely1 and www.twitter.com/treadwisely1.

About Cooper Tire & Rubber Company

Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (NYSE: CTB) is the parent company of a global family of companies that specializes in the design, manufacture, marketing and sale of passenger car and light truck tires. Cooper and its subsidiaries also sell medium truck, motorcycle and racing tires. Cooper's headquarters is in Findlay, Ohio, with manufacturing, sales, distribution, technical and design operations within its family of companies located in more than one dozen countries around the world. For more information on Cooper, visit www.coopertire.com, www.facebook.com/coopertire or www.twitter.com/coopertire.

About National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS)

NOYS was originally founded as the Traffic Safety Collaboration, and for its first 10 years was supported by funding from government agencies, including the Department of Transportation. In 2005, NOYS became a 501(c)(3) organization and incorporated as the National Organizations for Youth Safety. It has since grown to include over 80 national member organizations. NOYS continues to maintain a strong focus in traffic safety with support from government and business and industry, and has expanded to include other safety areas such as injury prevention, substance abuse prevention, and violence prevention.