Teaching Driving Skills For Life
For teenagers, obtaining a driver's license is a significant rite of passage, a sign that they're growing up and ready to accept the responsibility of operating a motor vehicle. Unfortunately, this exciting time for teenagers can also be dangerous.
Ford Motor Co. and government highway safety officials are launching "Real World Driver: Driving Skill For Life" a program designed to avert the thousands of teen driving deaths each year they blame on inexperience at the wheel.
The group plans to send videos, teacher guides and other materials to every public high school in the nation. The program also includes a Web site -- www.realworlddriver.com -- that offers prizes such as movie tickets and pizza coupons for teens who successfully complete a driving quiz.
The program, which will cost $6 million over three years, focuses on skills drivers must master, including maintaining a safe distance from other vehicles and anticipating difficult driving situations such as left-hand turns.
It will help fill a gap in teen driver education, the group said. In a survey conducted as part of the program's development, only 11 percent of parents of teens said they were very satisfied with the amount of driver training available.
The survey also suggested that parents underestimate the seriousness of teen crashes, the group said A survey showed 56 percent believing -- incorrectly -- that drug or alcohol abuse is more of a threat to a teen's life than traffic crashes. Only 13 percent identified teen driving crashes as the number one threat.
The survey, conducted Dec. 13-16, interviewed 360 parents of teens and had an error rate of 5.2 percentage points.
"Unfortunately, car crashes remain the number one killer of our teens. Yet, the good news is that most of the crashes and resulting injuries and deaths could be prevented if teenagers better understood the necessary skills for safely driving motor vehicles," Susan Cischke, Ford vice president of Environmental and Safety Engineering said. "Real World Driver has been designed to illustrate for young drivers safe driving techniques in key areas that safety experts say are of particular importance to novice drivers."
The group said around 6,000 teens die each year in accidents, many of which could have been prevented.
Ford and other safety experts agree that the sensible way for teens to learn driving is to phase them into it. Most states now have graduated driver's licensing (GDL) laws that do just that -- restrict driving in risky times and under risky circumstances until responsible performance is demonstrated over a period of time. Ford supports graduated driving laws, and hope Real World Driver will help augment them by offering guidance to parents and teens on what skills should be learned and practiced.
While hands-on, behind-the-wheel training and educational materials are important elements of any safe driving program, Cischke reminds all drivers that safety belts continue to provide the single, most effective protection in any vehicle crash.
"Parents should insist that their teenagers buckle up," Cischke says. "The safety belt is the single best way to avoid getting hurt in a crash. In addition, teens need to be reminded constantly that it is illegal for anyone under 21 to drink, much less to drink and drive."