Work as community, promote teen driver safety
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News from Lake County Health Department, Ravalli County Buckle Up and Harold Lair, Polson High School Driver’s Education instructor
POLSON — National Teen Driver Safety Week is the week of Oct. 20 – 26, 2013. Additionally, Montana’s legislature dedicated the third Tuesday in October as Montana Teen Driver Safety Day and is an official day of observance to increase public awareness and promote teen driver safety. All Montanans were encouraged to participate in special observances and exercises throughout the state on Oct. 15 in order to educate teens about the fatal consequences of distractions while driving and to promote teen driver safety.
Young drivers, ages 15- to 20-years old, are especially vulnerable to death and injury on our Montana roadways. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has developed a multi-tiered strategy designed to prevent motor vehicle related death and injuries among teen drivers by increasing seat belt use among our teens, implementing graduated drivers licensing, reducing teens access to alcohol and parental responsibility.
These four strategies together can work to prevent tragic deaths of teens in motor vehicle crashes and keep our communities safer. Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers in America. In fact, drivers between the ages of 15 and 24 make up about 14 percent of all drivers in our country, yet they are involved in 27 percent of all fatal crashes in the United States.
Past research has helped us to see what behavioral factors influence these crashes in our teens. These factors include: inexperience and immaturity combined with speed; drinking and driving; not wearing seat belts; distracted driving (cell phone use, loud music, other teen passengers, etc.); drowsy driving; nighttime driving; and other drug use among teens, which can aggravate this problem further.
To address these factors, the Montana Highway Patrol began teaching Alive at 25 classes five years ago, and has expanded their instructor base for this informative young driver education. Alive at 25 is a nationally recognized defensive driving course provided by The National Safety Council. This agency is a not-for-profit, nongovernmental, international public-service organization dedicated to protecting life and promoting health.
Every year, drivers under age of 25 are involved in more than five million collisions resulting in 11,000 fatalities. The long-term goal of the Alive at 25 program is to reduce the number of injuries and collisions incurred by drivers in the 15 to 24 age group.
The majority of Montana drivers attending Alive at 25 classes are traffic court referred due to having been involved in traffic crashes, or receiving citations from traffic stops. The educational benefit to these drivers is that they develop convictions about safety and practical strategies that will keep them safe on the road. Student participants of the program report learning driving safety tips that they feel help them become safer drivers.
We also can help our children understand what distracted driving looks like and set rules for our children while they are in the vehicle driving, such as no cell phone use, limiting the number of teen passengers riding with them, and practicing with our children in both summer and winter driving conditions to help them understand varying road conditions.
Preventing teen deaths in crashes is a community responsibility. If we all work together to educate the youth of our community, we can help them discover the value of life, and help them to also work with their peers to educate them about the risks associated with driving irresponsibly. The Buckle Up Montana coalitions across the state of Montana are working on these very efforts. We hope you will join them in educating Montana teens about safe driving.
