A new topic and growing priority among driver’s education instructors and high school safety programs everywhere has to do with teaching teenagers the risks and dangers of distracted driving. More specifically, teen drivers are host to the highest rates of texting and driving accidents and resulting traffic fatalities.
Impact Teen Drivers
Impact Teen Drivers is a non-profit organization that has been reaching out to schools nationwide. Impact provides an educational program designed to reveal the real dangers and consequences of distracted and reckless driving. Impact Teen Drivers also works to distribute free resources to groups that serve local communities—first responders, educators, health professionals, volunteer firefighters, police, and parents so that well-known facts and evidence can be shared at safety seminars and assemblies.
Impact in High Schools
An article posted by the Los Angeles CBS News affiliate detailed Impact’s first high school assembly in which Mercedes-Benz Driving Academy joined forces with Impact Teen Drivers, the California Highway Patrol, and other safety partners for a community-wide event at LA’s Northridge Academy High School. Impact’s program works to teach student drivers and increase awareness about the dangers of distracted driving; helping teens become safer and more responsible behind the wheel.
At the assembly, Carolyn Duchene of Mercedes said:
“Crashes are the number one killer of teens and 90 percent of crashes are due to human error.”
During the late October seminar, teen drivers maneuvered through a cone course distraction-free and then again with common distractions such as music, cell phones and passengers in the car.
“The more than we can do to raise awareness amongst teens that they really are in control and that if they make the right decisions, they really will be able to be safer, more responsible drivers,” Duchene said.
Teen/Student Distracted Driving Statistics
Results were recently released from a study completed earlier in 2013 by the Governors Highway Safety Association (California). The results revealed that the number of 16- and 17-year-old driver deaths had increased dramatically over the first six months of 2012. Overall, 16- and 17-year-old driver fatalities increased from 202 to 240 – a 19 percent jump. Other large-population states like Florida, Texas, and New York are likely experiencing similar patterns.
- Each year, approximately 300,000 teenagers are treated at hospitals for non-fatal injuries from texting and driving accidents
- Nearly 3,300 drivers are killed each year in texting and driving accidents. Teenagers make up the vast majority of this total.
- Nearly 25% of teens admit to responding to a text message once or more every time they drive.
- Teens who text and drive are 50% more likely to crash than teens who drink and drive
- 56% of teens admit to talking on the phone while driving.
- Studies have shown that talking on a cell phone can double the likelihood of an accident, and teen drivers are at least three more times likely to crash than older drivers.
References:
Impact
