On Wednesday, students at Oak Hill High School participated in the State Farm-sponsored Celebrate My Drive event by operating a “Driving Simulator” and experiencing a “Seatbelt Convincer,” all part of the community’s effort to raise awareness of the hazards of driving.
In Lewiston, students, their families and members of the community are being asked to support Lewiston High School’s participation in Celebrate My Drive by making daily “safe driving commitments” online. The more commitments received, the greater chance the school could win a $100,000 grant or possibly win a chance to host a Kelly Clarkson concert here.
These schools are among more than 3,000 high schools across the country participating in this weeklong teen driving awareness project, which starts today.
Celebrate My Drive is a super-cheery name for a project that is deadly serious.
Driving is, by far, the leading cause of death of American teenagers.
In Maine, according to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, 15- to 24-year-olds account for 10 percent of all licensed drivers, but they are involved in 36 percent of all motor vehicle fatalities.
That’s a frighteningly lopsided statistic.
Maine has done a lot in recent years to reduce teen driving deaths, including making teen permits more restrictive, requiring more driving time before a teen can take a driver’s test, and expanding education and outreach efforts for teens and their parents.
But, given teens’ natural sense of invincibility, their overconfidence in their abilities and their inexperience in detecting danger, many do not have the proper sense of caution they need behind the wheel.
Consider these facts, from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the National Sleep Foundation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, physicians and other sources:
• Teen drivers are involved in four times more fatal crashes than adults.
• Of the teen drivers killed, 58 percent were not wearing seat belts. Of passengers killed in cars driven by teens, 50 percent were not wearing safety belts.
• Teens tend to scan the road for hazards more narrowly than adults, and take longer to detect and then recognize the significance of the hazard, which means they have less time to react and are more likely to crash.
• The fatal crash rate for 16-year-old drivers is nearly twice as high at night than it is during the day.
• The crash risk is four times higher for drivers while using a cell phone, hands free or not.
• 89 percent of teen drivers self-report that they have driven while using a cell phone.
• Teens who sleep less than 8 hours each night are one-third more likely to crash than those who get more sleep.
• Young drivers are less likely than adults to drink and drive (which is good), but their crash risk is much higher when they do.
• 24 percent of teens self-report that they have ridden with a teen driver who had been drinking.
• Teens whose parents are not actively supervising the driving are more likely to be killed in crashes than teens whose parents are more authoritative. Teens who say their parents set rules about driving are half as likely to crash and twice as likely to wear seat belts.
• Boys are equally likely to be distracted while driving with passengers or without, but are far more likely to become aggressive drivers with friends in the car. Girls are much more likely to be distracted when they have passengers, but are less likely to become aggressive with their friends on board.
• Unlicensed drivers are much more likely to be reckless behind the wheel than licensed drivers; in 18 percent of all fatal accidents of 14- to 18-year-old drivers, the drivers did not have a license.
• Teens who smoke are twice as likely to crash as teens who don’t, because lighting a cigarette while driving is distracting.
That’s the bad news, but there is good news out there on the road.
According to research packaged as part of the Celebrate My Drive contest, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that between 1975 and 2006 — during which the national minimum drinking age was raised to 21 years — 27,052 teens were spared from dying in a crash. That’s an average of 873 teens per year, or the size of the combined current student bodies at Mountain Valley High School in Rumford and Buckfield Junior-Senior High School.
That’s an astonishingly positive number, and progress in more recent years is even better.
In 2011, 1,208 fewer teens died in crashes than were killed in 2008. And, 30 percent fewer passengers riding in cars driven by teens were killed over the same time period.
That’s a result of better education, more restrictive licenses for young drivers, safer cars, more teens wearing seat belts and more emphasis on driving sober.
As much progress as has been made, the sad fact is that last year more than 3,000 people died in crashes with teens behind the wheel.
So, the value of teens and parents participating in the Celebrate My Drive campaign is not so much that Kelly Clarkson might come to a local school (although that would be waaay cool), but is more about preventing another teen’s death.
And, while the program is school-based, the real responsibility and the greater influence over teens’ safe driving habits comes from parents. The more involved a parent is, the less likely their child will be to die on the road, or to kill someone else while driving.
jmeyer@sunjournal.com
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