Program helps teens drive safely

Parents hold the keys when it comes to their teens’ driving safety. In fact, research shows that when parents take an active role in their teens’ driving education and set driving guidelines, they can reduce their teens’ chances of being in a crash by up to onethird.

According to government statistics, traffic crashes remain the No. 1 killer of teens. In 2003, teen drivers were involved in more than 1.7 million vehicle crashes, injuring nearly 400,000 teens and killing nearly 5,000. And teen traffic deaths peak in the summer, when teens spend more time on the road than they do during the school year. In addition, teens drive more at night and often travel with groups of teens, leading to further distractions.

Chrysler Group has resources available to help. They’ve created Road Ready Teens, a home-based program for both parents and teens. The initiative helps parents ease their teens into driving while gradually exposing and educating them about the risks they face on the road.

“Chrysler Group is urging parents to pay close attention to their teens’ driving safety, year round but especially during high-risk summer months,” said Deb Morrissett, vice president of Safety and Regulatory Affairs at the Chrysler Group. “Road Ready Teens was designed to give parents step-by-step guidelines to help protect their teens behind the wheel. If parents and teens follow these steps, tens of thousands of teen crashes could be prevented each and every year.”

The program offers a Parent’s Guide to encourage dialogue between the parent and teen, as well as StreetWise, an innovative teen driving safety video game. StreetWise is designed to increase teens’ awareness and understanding of driving risks in a fun and challenging

way.

The Road

Ready Teens

Parent’s Guide includes simple tips and tools that parents need to help keep their teen drivers safe, such as:

•Limit the number of passengers with whom your teen drives.

•Limit distractions while driving, such as cellphone use and loud music.

•Remind your teen to take extra care when driving at night; most teen crashes occur after dark.

•Create a Parent-Teen Road Rules Contract based on recommendations from leading safety experts.

Road Ready Teens’ materials, including StreetWise and the Parent’s Guide, are free and available in English and Spanish at www.roadreadyteens.org. The site also links parents to state teen driving laws and licensing information and other safety resources.

This story provided by North American Precis Syndicate, Inc.