CAUTION-NEWLY LICENSED bumper sticker provides a “shield of protection”

Susan Kessler worked for almost three years to build a partnership with the Georgia Department of Driver Services, which is responsible for licensing teenage drivers. Her  “CAUTION: Newly Licensed” magnetic bumper sticker is now available from libraries, police departments and every DDS licensing station throughout the state.

The CAUTION-NEWLY LICENSED® Car Magnet was developed to reduce teen car crashes and fatalities. The magnet identifies teens with Learners Permits and First Year Licenses. Placed on the rear of the vehicle, the magnet alerts other drivers to use extreme caution, courtesy, and patience. A proven method to reduce teen car crashes is more experience behind the wheel.

The CAUTION-NEWLY LICENSED® car magnet provides a “shield of protection” from other drivers and allows the teen to concentrate on the road. The magnet protects not only the inexperienced drivers, but also surrounding drivers. Buses, semi-trucks and drivers education vehicles clearly mark new drivers. The same concept works for teen drivers. Identifying teen drivers is already the law in many other countries including those in Europe, Asia, Canada, and Australia.

The CAUTION-NEWLY LICENSED® Car Magnet Program launched a pilot program in Cobb County, Georgia in April 2007 with a distribution of more than 3,000 magnets with tremendous success. In October 2007, the CAUTION-NEWLY LICENSED® car magnets became available nationwide. We believe that by working together as a society, we will save teen lives. Please help us by identifying all new teen drivers.

Check into our online Safety Store to learn more and pick one up for your teen today. For $10 you can’t go wrong!

Should We Raise the Driving Age?

We got a call from CNN one day last month to come downtown and be on TV, interviewing on the issue of raising the driving age to 18. Sad to say, their deadline was less than two hours away. With Atlanta traffic there was no way to be there on time, so we had to pass.

The driving age is once again an issue in the news. In other countries — including Germany, France and most of the EU, Brazil, China, Japan, Russia, South Africa and the Australian state of Victoria, – teens can’t be licensed until the age of 18. Our neighbors to the North in Canada still hold with most US states at 16 years old. New Jersey stands alone in the US with minimum licensing at 17, while South Dakota is at 14-1/2.

According to the IIHS.org status report of September 9th, “A basic question is whether the risk associated with beginning drivers stems from their youth and immaturity or [their] inexperience. If it’s mainly immaturity, then it would pay to put off licensure until teenagers get a little bit older. But if the problem is mostly inexperience, then delaying licensure would simply put off the toll of beginner’s crashes [to an older age group].”

Many studies have been done dating back to the 90’s that try to separate these two factors. One Canadian study concludes that 16 year old teens, especially girls, had higher rates of injury crashes than older teens who had the same amount of behind the wheel experience. Another 11 studies also focused on driver age and inexperience. Based on these studies, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety concludes that “new drivers who are 16 years old have higher crash rates than older teenagers who are also new drivers.”

So it seems that research supports raising the driving age to reduce the crash rate. During 2008 several states introduced legislation to raise the driving age, yet none have passed. Legislators face resistance from parents who, according to Dr. Anne McCartt, “…may know that putting off licensure is good from a safety standpoint, but at the same time they’re impatient to get out of the business of chauffeuring their kids from one activity to another. They often believe their own children will be safe drivers, and they may be disinclined to disappoint their kids, many of whom want to get their licenses as soon as possible. For these and whatever other reasons, parents haven’t made a big push to change the licensing laws,” McCartt says.

8 Tips for Saving Money on Teen Auto Insurance

These tips can save you real money on auto insurance for your teen driver.

1. If you’re buying a car for your teen, choose an inexpensive safe car that carries lower premiums. Visit www.safercar.gov to get safety ratings on over 2,500 vehicles. If you put your teen in a high powered, expensive car, you’ll pay higher premiums and expose your teen to temptation and greater risk should he decide to “test out” his skills at high speed.

2. Shop around for insurance. If you’re putting your teen on your policy, chances are you won’t want to change your carrier. But you can use the Internet to find the rates and protection that you are looking for, often at better rates than your own carrier offers.

3. Limit your teen’s driving. Keep the mileage down to a minimum to keep the premium rate low. Lower mileage can mean a lower premium.

4. Raise Deductibles. Deductibles are the amount you pay out of pocket when you or your teen are involved in a crash. The higher your deductible amount, the lower your premium.

5. Encourage your teen to get good grades. Most carriers offer a good student discount. Many parents make getting good grades a condition of driving. No matter how you handle the issue, be sure to apply for the good student discount, and any others that may apply.

6. Use an active GPS monitor. Many insurance companies provide discounts for motorists who equip their vehicle with an active GPS tracking unit. These discounts are mandatory in some states, as the GPS unit qualifies as an anti-theft device.

7. Avoid insuring a hybrid vehicle for your teen. The IIHS reports this month that hybrids cost insurance companies more than otherwise identical vehicles running on gas. Of a dozen vehicles that are available in both conventional gas and hybrid models, ten of the 12 hybrids had higher “crash severity” than their gas-powered counterparts. When insurers pay higher claims, you pay higher premiums.

8. Complete an advanced defensive driving course. Many carriers offer discounts for teens who complete defensive driving programs. Our most popular program, which can be done at home in about 8-10 hours, is the teenSMART^® program, which can save hundreds or perhaps up to $1,000 on premiums over the time your teen drives. See the web site for more detail.

Expensive Gas — Fewer Fatalities

With the nation suffering under $4 per gallon gasoline, there’s at least one good piece of news: traffic fatalities may be cut by up to almost one-third. About 1,000 each month, 12,000 per year, with teen drivers enjoying the biggest reduction.

Researchers Michael Morrisey, Ph.D., director of University of Alabama, Birmingham’s Lister Hill Center for Health Policy, and David Grabowski, Ph.D. of Harvard Medical School studied the fatality rate per capita from driving crashes, then compared those rates to the quarterly cost of gasoline between 1983 and 2000. They found that each 10 percent increase in the cost of gasoline was accompanied by a 2.3 percent reduction in driving fatalities.

Re-visiting the research using price data through 2006 showed consistent results, and suggests that fatalities could be reduced by as much as 1,000 people per month with our current $4 per gallon fuel cost. Annualized, 12,000 fatalities avoided is almost one-third of the roughly 40,000 annual death toll on America’s highways.

Teens are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries of this phenomenon. While the entire driving population shows a 2.3 percent reduction, 15 to 17 year old drivers saw a decline of six percent, while for 18 to 21 year old drivers it was 3.2 percent.

What’s happening in your family? Are you limiting your teen’s driving? Does your teen have enough of his or her own money to afford $4 gas? Are your teens driving slower to save gas? Driving less? Waiting until a later age to begin driving? No matter what the reason, when teens — the most crash-prone, risky drivers — drive fewer miles, it’s bound to have an effect on the overall statistics.

There aren’t many silver linings to the dark and persistent $4 per gallon gas situation, but we can be glad it’s saving lives.

This Law Applies Only to Teen Drivers

Teenage drivers are unique among all other drivers for many reasons – their high likelihood of being involved in and causing crashes being the most critical. The response to this national problem from the legislative side has been to single out teens with two laws that apply only to teens.

These are the Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) laws and the Zero Tolerance BAC (blood alcohol content) laws. In addition, of course, teens are subject to all the other laws that govern the driving behavior of every driver.

GDL laws are now in effect in every state in the country. They are designed to prohibit the most risk-laden driving situations for novice drivers, allowing them to gain experience and gradually be exposed to greater risk as they learn.

GDL in most states requires youngsters to begin with a Learner’s Permit, usually at age 15 or 16. This level of licensing must be held for a specific length of time, the “Mandatory Holding Period,” usually six months. Why? Because during the Learner’s period, teens are learning to drive. That’s why parents are required by law to drive with their teens for a specific number of daytime and nighttime hours — usually 30 to 50. Many states require parents or guardians to submit an affidavit certifying that they and their teen have, in fact, done that practice driving.

When a teen passes the road test and is ready to drive alone, without a parent or guardian in the car, he moves to the Intermediate level license. This stage usually lasts until at least age 17 or 18 and includes a night driving restriction, usually starting at 9 or 10PM. Most states also have a restriction on carrying teenage passengers, usually allowing no teenage passengers, or no more than one.

But did you know: beginning to drive solo is the most risky time of any? That’s when Mom or Dad are no longer in the car, watching traffic and giving advice and direction. It’s the time when he’s likely to turn the radio on full blast, or play with his iPod or cell phone when he’s driving. Driving alone is a wonderful feeling of autonomy. Teens report that they feel “more adult” when they’re driving.

Data from Nationwide Insurance shows the difference in crash rates between Learners and Novices. Learners are those with a parent still in the car; Novices are driving solo without parents. Based on this data, crashes increase from around 10 to over 120 — a 12-fold increase — when teens begin driving alone! There is a gradual reduction in crashes as the driver becomes more experienced. But even after two years, the crash rate for solo drivers is still nearly three times higher than it is for Learners.

Enforcement of GDL laws is critical if those laws are to have any effect. But our law enforcement system faces several problems when dealing with young drivers.

First, police in most jurisdictions are tasked with preventing “serious” crime. Many, if not most jurisdictions, consider enforcement of GDL laws to be a “secondary enforcement” issue. That is, they won’t simply stop a car driven by a visually young-appearing person because the office thinks there may be a GDL violation underway.

Then too, there may be a tendency for officers to overlook possible GDL violations, and for prosecutors to dismiss them because the suspect is “just a kid.” Further, it is often difficult for law enforcement to determine the age of the driver unless a stop is made.

All of this has had the effect of placing the first responsibility for enforcement of GDL on parents. Yet parents are often unaware of their role under GDL enforcement.

Allstate Insurance’s “Under Your Influence” survey of 1,000 parents is published at our web site, with Allstate’s kind permission. The survey results are shocking because they show how little parents know about teen driving risks…and how parents fail to take the actions that can prevent crashes.

For example, the survey shows less than one third of parents believe teens are good drivers. Yet nearly nine in 10 parents say that their own teen can drive safely. This “not my teen syndrome” gives parents a false sense of security as parents embark on what may be the most dangerous phase of child-rearing.

When it comes to understanding laws associated with novice drivers, Allstate reports that 93 percent of parents believe they can teach their kids to drive, yet three in five have never heard of, or are only vaguely familiar with, Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) laws. Most parents, unaware of GDL laws — which are designed to minimize a novice driver’s exposure to the highest risk driving situations — allow the exact behaviors that the laws are designed to prohibit. In simple language, ignorance of the laws puts young drivers at risk!

Where is GDL going? States are updating their laws to include more restrictions. Several states have enacted updates to their GDL that became effective on July 1, 2008. For example, California now makes it illegal for drivers under the age of 18 to use a hand-held cell phone while driving.

Senate Bill 38: ” This bill, on and after July 1, 2008, would prohibit a person under the age of 18 years from driving a motor vehicle while using a wireless telephone, even if equipped with a hands-free device, or
while using a mobile service device…”

Yet the question remains: What can be done to inform, educate and motivate parents to take the appropriate actions to enforce GDL laws in their own families? The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has published a GDL state-by-state summary of laws accessible here. It’s updated every month and serves as a good starting point for parents to get the info they need. The Governor’s Highway Safety Association has another more detailed version here.

If you’re a parent, take a minute to print a copy of the laws in your state. If you’re a teen driver, get up to date on the law that applies to you and you alone!

How to Manage Your Teen’s Cell Phone When He’s Driving

After three years we’ve finally decided to put up a blog here at WordPress. There’s just too much happening in the teen driving safety arena to limit the news to a once-a-month newsletter.

Our June 2008 Safe Teen Driving newsletter just went out with yet another article about teens using cell phones while they drive. Dr. Anne McCartt of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, finds that bans on cell phones are often ignored by teen drivers. We all hear and agree that using a cell phone, and especially texting while driving, can increase the likelihood of a crash. Here are some research and study results that validate this common concern.

The “100 Car Naturalistic Study” done by Virginia Tech Transportation Institute in concert with NHTSA found after 2 million driving miles and 40,000+ hours of driving:

• 80% of crashes and 65% of near crashes were the result of driver inattention
• 35% of secondary tasks (source of inattention) – use of wireless device

Other studies and data, including this report from Aegis Mobility show that:

• Distractions cause up to 80% of crashes
• Cell phones are the #1 driver distraction
• Impairment similar to driving intoxicated
• Hands-free as dangerous as hand-held
• Cell phone drivers four times more likely to be involved in a personal injury accident
• Use of cell phones while driving is banned in 45 countries worldwide

Common Misperceptions

• Talking on a cell phone is no more dangerous than putting on makeup, eating fast food, tuning your radio or reading a map while driving

– Cell phone driving is a visual, mechanical and cognitive distraction. Visual because it requires taking attention off the road ahead. Mechanical because it requires physical action to pick up the phone, dial or accept a call — all of which take attention from the road ahead. Cognitive because using a cell phone while driving takes attention away from the driving task.

• It’s no more dangerous than talking to a passenger

– A passenger in a vehicle is aware of the driving situation and can even serve as an additional look-out for hazards
– The phone carries a certain obligation of immediacy

2 Easy Steps for Setting Limits and Making Them Stick

There shouldn’t be any debate on the dangers of using a cell phone while driving, especially for young, novice drivers. So here’s a simple way to manage the use of your teenager’s phone when they’re behind the wheel.

Sit down with your teen and bring them up to speed on the dangers of talking on the phone while driving. Here’s a good resource you can use to get the point across.

Virtually every cell phone keeps a log of incoming and outbound calls, complete with time and date of each call. Explain to your son or daughter that you’ll be checking their phone log to make sure they’re not driving and using the phone at the same time. And, be sure to explain that coming home with the log erased from the phone’s memory is not an option.
It really can be that quick and easy, and just might prevent a crash, injury or fatality.