Remember:
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death amongst teenagers aged 15-19. For this reason, it is extremely pressing to find an intervention that will be effective and heeded. Here are some interventions that have found to be efficacious in vitro:
Graduated Drivers Licensing:
Research suggests that the most comprehensive GDL systems are associated with a 38% reduction in fatal crashes and a 40% reduction in injury crashes among novice teenage drivers (CDC, 2010) as well as a 8-14 % reduction in rate of fatal accidents among all teenagers (NIH,2011).
Parental Intervention:
Parental oversight can be the most efficacious and important intervention as parents can “steer” their teens in the right direction for safe driving.
Parental influence is detrimental to the success of the novice driver. It is important to provide the the teen with a warm, supportive, yet stern environment. Teens who view their parents as authoritative figures experience a:
- 50% reduction in crashes
- 71% less likely to drive intoxicated
- 30% less likely to use cell phones while driving
- 50% more likely to use a safety belt and understand its importance
(CHOP,2009).
Checkpoint Programs are designed to increase parental limits on novice teen independent driving in high risk situations
- Study conducted by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (Zakrajsek,2009) .
- Participating in Checkpoint programs reported significantly increased parental awareness of said teen’s driving risks at licensing (p-value 0.0134).
- Families participating in the checkpoint program are more likely to impose (and agree) on parental restrictions on teen driving meeting Checkpoint’s standards.
Report Restrictions in intervention vs control:
- Finally, 95.8 of teens participating in this program recommended a parent-teen agreement, despite restrictions placed on driving.
Reducing Peer Passengers
- Driving without peer passengers is a very effective way to reduce the rate of a fatal crash
- The reduction of risk is ~ 75% from cars with three or more passengers compared with those with no passengers.
