AMERICA TO TEEN DRIVERS: ‘KEEP YOUR HANDS ON THE WHEEL; YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD; AND YOUR THUMBS OFF YOUR PHONE’S KEY PAD

National Teen Dri­ver Safety Week is Octo­ber 17–24

Every­one knows that young peo­ple are the future of the Nation, but
it’s becom­ing increas­ingly clear that the future of young peo­ple on the
Nation’s high­ways isn’t quite so rosy. This is par­tic­u­larly true with
the growth in pop­u­lar­ity of all man­ner of elec­tronic devices that are
vying for the atten­tion of young dri­vers over the act of dri­ving itself.

First, the bad news: Accord­ing to the U. S Depart­ment of
Transportation’s National High­way Traf­fic Safety Admin­is­tra­tion (NHTSA),
in 2008, more than 3,750 teens ages 15 through 19 died in auto­mo­bile
crashes of all types, and almost 660, or 18 per­cent, of those were
killed in crashes involv­ing some form of dis­tracted dri­ving.
All told, 4,457 teen dri­vers ages 15 to 19 were involved in fatal
crashes in 2008, and 16 per­cent (692) were dis­tracted at the time of the
crash.

And while dis­tracted dri­ving comes in many forms, from tex­ting and
talk­ing on a cell phone, to eat­ing and play­ing with a radio, CD player,
or MP3 device, all too often the result is tragic. In 2008, that
tragedy was played out nearly 800 times on America’s highways—that’s the
num­ber of peo­ple killed in crashes that involved a dis­tracted teen
driver.

While no one is exempt from dri­ving dis­trac­tions offered by the
elec­tronic giz­mos they are bring­ing with them into their vehi­cles, teens
seem to be par­tic­u­larly sus­cep­ti­ble to the siren call of tex­ting.
A study by the Pew Research Center’s Inter­net & Amer­i­can Life Project
reported that nearly half of the teens inter­viewed reported that they
had been in a vehi­cle while the dri­ver texted. All told, one in three
teens told Pew researchers that they had texted while driving.

Now for the good news: Over­all, teen dri­ving deaths and involve­ment in
fatal crashes have been declin­ing over the last decade. In 2008,
accord­ing to fig­ures from NHTSA, 15– to 20-year-old dri­vers involved in
fatal crashes dropped 27 per­cent com­pared to 1998. Dri­ver fatal­i­ties
for this age group also dropped by 20 per­cent over the same 10-year
period.

While it is impos­si­ble to pin­point a sin­gle rea­son for these declines,
youth dri­ving pro­grams like Grad­u­ated Dri­ver Licens­ing are cer­tainly
hav­ing a pro­found and pos­i­tive effect on sav­ing young lives on the
high­ways. Also, NHTSA antic­i­pates that anti-texting laws and strong
police enforce­ment may also con­tribute to help­ing save teen lives. In
the first six months of 2010, no fewer than 30 States have passed
leg­is­la­tion out­law­ing tex­ting while driving.

In addi­tion, aware­ness pro­grams like National Teen Dri­ver Safety Week
are help­ing to edu­cate both par­ents and teens alike about this impor­tant
safety issue nation­wide. This year, National Teen Dri­ver Safety Week is
Octo­ber 17–24.

For more infor­ma­tion about teen dri­ving safety, please visit
www.ugotbrains.com and www.njteendriving.com