It is not often that high school students get compared to senior citizens, but according to Allstate Insurance, teenagers who are talking on the phone while they drive can have the reaction time of a 70-year-old.

Ames High School senior Sam Ennis has a dangerous driving remedy that could win him $20,000. Discovery Education is teaming up with Toyota to offer the Toyota Teen Driver Video Challenge, a video contest for high school students to teach on safe driving practices.

Ennis created a two-minute music video with classmates Luke Coleman, Jack Sanders and Sam Roberts that advocates people putting their cellphone in the glove box when they get into the car.

Ennis, who is involved in band, cross-country, theater and volunteer opportunities at Ames High School, plans to attend Iowa State next fall as a freshman in computer engineering.

“My video has a really upbeat message,” Ennis said. “It’s not about your friend dying in a car accident. I used a more positive outlook instead of trying to scare viewers into not texting and driving.”

Ennis submitted his entry in mid-February and was selected as one of 10 finalists for the national competition in March. The winner of the contest will be decided by public votes during a two-week voting period that began April 3 on the Toyota Teen Driver Video Challenge website.

“Here’s a situation that you’ve probably encountered while you’re driving in your vehicle,” Ennis sings in his video. “Phone notification alerts you to the fact that you’ve got a new text from your amigo … when you’re drivin’ down the road and you hear your ringtone, don’t answer that, don’t answer that.”

The video is a music video for the song Ennis wrote called “Keep Your Phone in the Glovebox.” Ennis and his classmates strut their ’80s moves in neon workout jackets, faded jeans and white tennis shoes.

“Sam has been doing videos for a long time,” Coleman said. “So he really wanted to write an ’80s pop song and put a really cheesy video with it, so I think it’s a fun video and the contest is nationwide, so it would be really cool to say that a student from Ames won it.”

Voting for the Toyota Teen Driver Video Challenge ends at 4 p.m. Tuesday. Votes are limited to one per network, but voters can use their smartphones to vote as well.