Showing posts with label teens. Show all posts
100 Deadliest Days for Teens
Posted by Unknown in AAA Foundation, GDL, GYTSM, Holidays, NOYS, parents and teens, teens, teens and Passengers on Wednesday, May 21, 2014
We’re 3 weeks into May, which means another successful Global Youth Traffic Safety Month (GYTSM) is well underway. The event, organized by the National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS), includes special events, scholarships, rallies, and more, and is dedicated to raising awareness of teen traffic safety issues and promoting youth leadership. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety is a proud partner of NOYS, a coalition of non-profit, government, and corporate groups working to empower youth and save lives. Over the years, we've participated in planning GYTSM events, released teen driver safety research in conjunction with the month, and even acted as "Walk Ambassadors" for the Long, Short Walk, an international initiative spearheaded by the Zenani Mandela Campaign and Make Roads Safe to promote road safety's inclusion in the UN Development Goals.
Even though GYTSM 2014 will end May 31, it's important to keep up the mission of the month all summer long. In fact, the coming Memorial Day weekend marks the start of the "100 Deadliest Days" for teen drivers, with an average of 261 teens losing their lives in traffic crashes during each of the summer months (a 26% increase compared with the rest of the year). This is among the many reasons teen driver safety is one of our priority research areas.For example, a Foundation study of teens and passengers found that the risk of death for 16- and 17-year-old drivers increases by 44% when carrying one passenger under 21, doubles with two passengers, and quadruples with three or more versus driving alone.
Furthermore, the prevalence of speeding, late-night driving, and alcohol use also tend to increase with teenage passengers in the car. Having an adult in the car, however, cuts fatality risk to 16- and 17-year-old drivers by 62%, underscoring the important role parents and guardians play in keeping their teen drivers safe. When parents drive with their teens in different road situations, such as at night, in heavy traffic, or in inclement weather, they are helping to prepare them for the many driving scenarios they will encounter throughout their motoring careers. And of course, parents play a key role in helping teens limit dangerous distractions in the vehicle, such as smartphones and other electronics!Room for One More? Nope
Posted by Unknown in AAAFTS, GDL, Passenger limits, teens, teens and Passengers on Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Last week we touched on the importance of night driving restrictions for novice teen drivers. This week we turn our attention to another key component of graduated driver licensing: passenger limits.
Today, the AAA Foundation released a new report,Teen Driver Risk in Relation to Age and Number of Passengers, detailing how much the risk of a teen driver getting into a crash is affected by the number and age of the passengers he or she is carrying. The results largely corroborate the findings of earlier studies that were conducted before many states enacted passenger restrictions as part of their GDL systems.
Compared with driving alone, a 16- or 17-year-old driver carrying one passenger younger than 21 (and with no older passengers) has a 44 percent greater chance of death per mile driven. Having two passengers younger than 21 doubles the risk of death, compared with driving alone. Carrying three or more young passengers quadruples the risk of death.
In contrast, a 16- or 17-year-old driver’s risk of death per mile driven is reduced 62 percent when driving with an adult aged 35 or older.
These startling numbers point to two things. First, they highlight how important it is that states have worked to enact passenger limits for novice teen drivers. Currently, 45 states and the District of Columbia have such restrictions in place, though many of these do allow one teen peer to be in the vehicle. Second, they serve as a strong reminder of the protective influence that adult passengers have on teen drivers, and the benefits of parents continuing to drive with their teens even after the learner’s permit phase has ended.
Other Foundation research has also touched on the issue of teens with passengers. Our recent naturalistic study of teen distracted driving found that loud conversation and horseplay were more than twice as likely to occur when teens drove with multiple teen passengers compared to when only one teen passenger was present. These were also among the riskiest distracting conditions for teen drivers: serious incidents, for example, were six times more likely to occur when there was loud conversation in the vehicle.
As teens gear up for prom, graduation, end-of-year parties, and summer vacation, the temptation to pile friends into the car and hit the open road is going to rise with the temperature. But since the risk of driver death also rises with each additional passenger, we take this opportunity to remind everybody of the importance of passenger restrictions, and the right parents have to set their own – even if their state hasn’t.
Graduated Driver Licensing and Night Driving
Posted by Unknown in AAAFTS, GDL, Graduated Drivers Licensing, Learners Permits, teens on Friday, May 4, 2012
One of the most successful innovations in the effort to reduce teen traffic fatalities has been the adoption of graduated driver licensing (GDL) in every state. Under these GDL systems, teens are not granted full driving privileges right away. Instead, they progress through stages, with restrictions gradually lifted as teens become more experienced.
While each state sets its own specific GDL provisions, the basic structure is the same almost everywhere:
1) Teens first get a learner’s permit, which allows them to drive only when a parent or other adult is in the car with them.
2) Next, teens get an intermediate license, which allows them to drive unsupervised, but with certain restrictions in place.
3) Finally, after a certain amount of time or when they reach a certain age, teens can receive a full, unrestricted license.
This tiered approach limits the risk teens are exposed to when they are first learning to drive, so that they have gained some practice and experience by the time they confront more hazardous situations.
One circumstance that nearly every state’s GDL system places restrictions on is night driving. The combination of reduced visibility, glare, fatigue, impaired drivers, and other factors makes night time particularly hazardous for teens, who are not yet accustomed to managing risks behind the wheel. In fact, driving at night doubles teens’ chances of getting in a deadly crash. And it’s not just late-night driving that’s dangerous: along with the hours right after school gets out, the most common time for teen traffic fatalities to occur is between 9 pm and midnight.
So how can we protect teens from night time crashes? It’s important to know what time your state’s night restrictions take effect. In nearly half the states, they don’t begin until midnight or later; safety experts, however, agree that teen safety would be improved greatly if restrictions kicked in at 9 or 10 pm. If you’re a parent, you can always decide to set house rules requiring your teen to be off the road earlier than state law requires.
Night driving restrictions are not the same as curfews. They are not about keeping teens out of trouble so much as they are about keeping them alive. Visit our web site, www.traffic-payout.org, to learn about our work in teen safety. For additional resources for parents and teens, visit www.teendriving.aaa.com.
National Youth Traffic Safety Month
Posted by Unknown in AAAFTS, NYTSM, Parent-teen driving agreement, teens, teens driving on Tuesday, May 1, 2012
For teens across the country, May is a special time of year. Spring sports are heating up, the school year is wrapping up, and preparations for prom and graduation are revving up.
For parents, educators, and those of us in the safety community, May is also an exciting time, as we share in the pride and enthusiasm that mark the end of a successful year and the eve of summer. But it is also a poignant time, as we recognize that the celebrations take a toll and the risk of teen crashes jumps.
National Youth Traffic Safety Month (NYTSM) serves as an important reminder that the only way for this to be a joyous time of year is for it also to be a safe one. Teens face a number of challenges on the road. Their inexperience,combined with immaturity, make them four times more likely to be involved in a crash than other drivers.
With this risk comes devastating consequences: traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers, claiming over 3,100 young lives in 2010 alone. That’s more than 3,100 families who won’t see their teens go off to college, or get their first job, or graduate, or become parents themselves. Many say this is tragic; I say it is outrageous.
All month long I’ll be posting entries here related to teen traffic safety, covering topics like graduated driver licensing, driver education, and parental involvement in the learning process. Later this month we’ll be releasing new findings regarding teen crash risk when passengers are present, and we’ll be joining with AAA and our other partners to promote the youth traffic safety message at events and in media nationwide.
I hope you’ll join us in observing NYTSM, and I wish all of you a happy, celebratory, and safe summer.
Skidding through the Learning Curve
Posted by Unknown in ADT, driving safety, NHTSA, parents and teens, supplementary driver training, teen drivers, Teen driving, teens on Wednesday, March 7, 2012
“Practice makes perfect,” right? Well when it comes to driving, it may not equal perfection, but it certainly helps. In fact, inexperience is one of the major reasons that teenagers have crash rates that are roughly four times higher than those of other drivers.
To address this, the AAA Foundation has been talking a lot lately about the importance of giving teens ample opportunity to practice their driving. The message has become even more urgent due to recent Foundation research that found that teens are not getting as much supervised driving practice with their parents as previously assumed, and that when they do practice, it tends to be along familiar routes on sunny days, rather than under the range of conditions motorists will face throughout their driving careers.
That teens need more – and more varied – driving practice is undeniable. I’d like to take this opportunity, however, to touch on a somewhat related issue that remains a bit more controversial. Across the country, interest is growing in so-called “supplementary” training programs for new drivers, which generally pick up where traditional, basic driver education courses leave off and teach more advanced skills like skid recovery, evasive maneuvering, and threshold braking. The hope, of course, is that students will learn skills that they can use to prevent crashes and escape emergencies.
The fear, however – suggested by the limited research conducted to date – is that such advanced training may breed overconfidence in inexperienced drivers that is not matched by their true skill level. There is also a concern that young drivers will apply the techniques they learn for thrills when driving, which would negate any gains in safety.
A study prepared for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration – which the AAA Foundation summarized and analyzed in a report released this week – found that most providers of these supplementary training programs indicate that improving safety is among their chief objectives, and is one of the most common reasons that parents enroll their teens. As we highlighted in our report, however, more research into the impact that these programs have on teen driving is sorely needed before any claims about their safety implications can be substantiated.
In the meantime, there is much that parents and guardians can be doing to give their teens the kinds of opportunities to practice what we know are beneficial. For example, as one of our recent reports on teen crashes found, young drivers improve relatively quickly at making left turns, entering roadways, and yielding properly, among other things, but they need practice to do so. The more experience they can get with such techniques while supervised, the less they may have to learn when they’re driving on their own.
With traffic crashes still the leading killer of American teens, it’s vital that we all do our part to keep young drivers safe on the road. When we’re teaching our teens how to drive, let’s be sure to help them steer safely through the learning curve without over-correcting.
Online Driver Education Programs?
Posted by Unknown in AAA Foundation, AAAFTS, driver ed, drivers education, NHTSA, Online drivers ed, parents and teens, teens, teens driving on Thursday, February 23, 2012
Driver Education is a key part of the development of young drivers, so it’s important that the advantages and disadvantages of online programs are made available to help parents choose an appropriate course for their teen.
We recently completed a report based on a study of Online Driver Education programs that was conducted for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. While traditional classroom drivers ed courses remain the norm, the use of online courses has been growing across the country.
The study identified 15 states that had either approved or accepted one or more online courses in‐lieu of traditional, in‐classroom instruction. While much of the curriculum was similar across programs, great variation was found in the manner in which course content was presented. While evaluating the overall safety impact of online driver education was beyond the scope of this study, the report did analyze strong and weak program characteristics in light of existing research and established standards for online learning in general.
The weaker programs were said to be very text heavy, and offered little feedback, allowed quick completion, and didn’t involve parents at all.
There was also considerable variation in the degree to which states exercised oversight of online driver education, with some only approving one centralized, government-affiliated program and others allowing online courses to proliferate virtually unregulated.
In addition to the full report, the Foundation also developed a fact sheet to help educate parents on this issue and highlight the program attributes to keep in mind when considering an online driver education course.
The strongest online courses contained:
· interactive exercises
· personal feedback from instructors
· timers to prevent skipping over lessons
· integrated behind-the-wheel components
· parental involvement
The weaker programs were said to be very text heavy, and offered little feedback, allowed quick completion, and didn’t involve parents at all.
There was also considerable variation in the degree to which states exercised oversight of online driver education, with some only approving one centralized, government-affiliated program and others allowing online courses to proliferate virtually unregulated.
In addition to the full report, the Foundation also developed a fact sheet to help educate parents on this issue and highlight the program attributes to keep in mind when considering an online driver education course.
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