Given that automobile crashes are the leading cause of injury and
death in teens, you can pretty much say that teens drive themselves to trauma
centers. And, they do this in record numbers.
Car crashes account for approximately 6,000 deaths annually of American
teens. While 15 to 20 year olds only account for 6.7% of the total driving
population, they account for a whopping 14% of all fatal crashes. Up to 60%
of fatally injured teen drivers were not wearing a seat belt, 65% of teen
passenger deaths occur at the hands of a teen driver, about 50% of the crashes
involving 16-year-old drivers are single vehicle crashes and 41% of fatal
crashes occur at nighttime.
While a single jet plane crash involving a few hundred lives will
make and maintain headline news for months and years, the epidemic of teen
deaths due to driver behavior is difficult to maintain on any political agenda.
Rather, it is an issue that is fought in the trenches mainly by grass roots
organizations often founded by surviving family members of crash victims.
The crusade to reduce and prevent teen driver crashes goes on several fronts
and includes many groups whose intention is to change rules and regulations
with respect to obtaining a drivers license, to increasing penalties for
driving infractions. Perhaps three fronts symbolize the crusade to prevent
or reduce teen driver fatalities: reduction of the legal limit for blood
alcohol content, increase penalties for impaired driving and graduated licensing.
Driver education has been a mainstay of the process to obtaining a
license. However, this has been largely unregulated with no nationally enforced
standard. Notwithstanding, there has been a long held belief that education
will determine performance and on this basis, the automobile insurance industry
has generally offered premium discounts to those young drivers who attended
some form of driver education. It seems that some insurers now bemoan having
ever entered into this quagmire believing now that the evidence supporting
a reduction of claims, based upon attendance at driver education is slim
- at best. In other words, education in and of itself, is not enough.
Graduated licensing is the natural progression from driver education.
Recognizing that new drivers need far more than information, graduated licensing
recognizes that driving is a complex learned skill that can only occur with
practice, over time. Graduated licensing provides a process whereby new drivers
must practice and master certain abilities before obtaining increased driver
privileges. Generally the process demands that the driver must master minimum
driving skills for daytime driving on city roads before being allowed to
enter specified major highways. The driver then must obtain another level
of proficiency before nighttime driving is permitted. Throughout these stages,
the driver is required to have differing levels of supervision and has greater
restrictions on blood alcohol content. Graduated licensing is shown to reduce
car crashes in novice drivers.
At some point however, the young leaves the nest and the novice driver
flies solo. From a human developmental point of view, this couldn't happen
at a worse time. Most novice drivers flying solo are adolescents. Adolescence
is a time of spreading wings, risk taking and the belief of invincibility.
Independence from parents is paramount, yet without resources for true
independence teens are caught in the developmental bind of relying on parental
resources to paradoxically flex their own might.
It is at this point in the journey where most teen injuries and deaths
occur.
To meet this next challenge a new initiative is taking the stage,
set to provide a process to take over where graduated licensing leaves off
and provide a new mechanism to reduce the risk associated with novice teen
drivers. Dubbed the I Promise Program, the particulars include a
parent-teen contract and a rear window decal with a clearly visible toll
free number. The decal identifies the driver as novice and invites the community
to make reports, positive or critical on driver behavior. The calls are taken
by a call center and a call report is delivered to the parent (owner) of
the vehicle. Critical to the success of the program is the contract. Parent
and teen sit down and complete a 9-page document that sets out mutual expectation
with respect to driving behavior, car maintenance, rewards and consequences
(as negotiated).
Developed by Gary Direnfeld, MSW, the program itself is still in
development. Direnfeld, a former director of a brain injury rehabilitation
program identifies that in order to be successful, the program must reach
the greatest number of novice teen drivers at the lowest cost possible. To
that end he identifies the automobile insurance industry as the most significant
partner in the success of the program as this industry reaches literally
every novice driver and had a vested interest in reducing the cost of claims
associated with the carnage of teen driver error. Interestingly, the I Promise
Program is already garnering international attention. A web site, developed
to introduce the initiative to the automobile insurance industry has letters
of support posted from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Korea and
Romania.
Direnfeld has actively sought these letters having a keen understanding
that in order to move the insurance industry, you first must show tremendous
support and acceptance of the program. He identifies that each letter is
crucial to the development of the program where the cumulative effect will
be the influence they can have on the insurance industry. In addition to
the letters of support, the program has obtained offers from Harvard, School
of Public Health and from Plan-It Safe, a program of Children's Hospital
of Eastern Region, Ontario, Canada to collaborate on research.
All traumas are serious. Traumas involving young persons are particularly
troublesome. Graduated licensing and then the I Promise Program are two
significant initiatives that can significantly reduce the number of teen
fatalities.
For more information on the I Promise Program and to view the letters
of support and the contract, go to:
www.papyrusgraphix.com/ipp
. Additional letters of support are encouraged and welcomed.
Mr. Direnfeld can be contacted at
direnfel@spectranet.ca or
(905) 628-4847.
see also: Ten Tips to Reduce Injuries in Teen Drivers
