New teenaged drivers have the highest accident rates of any group of drivers. Research shows that drivers under the age of 19 have a crash rate that is four times that of the general driving population and the youngest drivers have a higher accident rate yet. The highest accident rate is experienced within 2 years of receiving the driving license. Obviously, the crash rate decreases with driving experience. Research is needed to determine how to safely equip novice drivers with the important elements of experience before they encounter a need for it in an actual driving situation. Many novice drivers' accidents involve improper reactions to skids, panic stops, runoff-pavement, and other unusual situations unfamiliar to the young driver. A large percentage of young drivers receive their driving training in school-based classes. These classes typically involve numerous hours of classroom instruction on rules of the road, vehicle operation, and safety. The nascent drivers then spend several hours behind the steering wheel driving in parking lots or in normal traffic on familiar streets. Only rarely do they experience circumstances in which the vehicle must be handled at its performance limits. Most carefully controlled research has found that standard driver education classes have little impact on subsequent driving safety. Several organizations in the United States offer training in advanced vehicle handling for novice drivers. Such training typically includes vehicle control on skid pads, obstacle avoidance, rapid deceleration braking, and maneuvering near the vehicle performance limits. While there is considerable anecdotal evidence that such training, added to the standard driver instruction, creates a more capable novice driver, few systematic studies of its effect on the safety of young drivers has been completed. A study of over 400 graduates of an urban, east coast course, reported that the graduates had 77% fewer accidents than their peers. That number, however, was probably inflated by a weak research design in which the more careful and highly motivated teens were self-selected into the training classes. A second study, conducted in Oregon, found no overall safety benefit from a course designed to teach high performance maneuvering and skid avoidance/recovery. A much more carefully designed and controlled study was needed to explore and validate those divergent results. The purpose of this research program was to conduct such a study. This report summarizes Phase 1 of the three-phase project. Phase 1 included (A) identification of potential participants, (B) development of recruiting materials, (C) recruitment and scheduling of participants, (D) preparation of training plans and instructional materials, and (E) coordination with the Montana Office of Public Instruction for use of their facilities and instructors for the training workshops. During Phase 2, approximately half of the subjects recruited in Phase 1 will receive an intervention that involves a one-day classroom and behind-the-wheel workshop. The training will take place during summer 2005, 6 - 12 months after they complete high school driver education. The workshop will include a pre-assessment of skills based upon Mottola’s 10 driving habits, training on the habits and a post-assessment at the end of the day. Most of the day will be involved in training students in the key habits that address the greatest number of driving crashes teens in Montana experience. Communications will be provided to parents and teens at time of recruitment, just prior to workshop, and a tailored communication at the end of the training that outlines the key issues each individual student needs to continue to work on with suggestions to parents on how to help the student. For an additional three months, the student will be encouraged to complete follow-on exercises based on their tailored feedback from the workshop. During Phase 3, teens will be tracked for 4 years following the project to determine the driving history comparisons of the control group to those who received the intervention. Reported accidents, violations, and driving experience will be compared once per year during this monitoring period. This report covers Phase 1 of the project. (Author/publisher)
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