Car crashes kill more young people each year than any other cause. In addition to law enforcement and driver education, efforts to improve safety for this age group over the years have included public education and outreach programs, but these programs have suffered from two notable shortcomings. First, they have tended to focus exclusively on drunk driving, largely overlooking dangers that are actually more common to teenage drivers, such as nighttime driving and distractions (mainly cell phones/texting and other teen passengers). Second, the programs have typically been developed by adults with little or no involvement by the target audience, thereby limiting their potential effectiveness. Teens in the Driver Seat® (TDS) is a growing program that addresses each of these issues by focusing on many of the common teen driver dangers and by involving teens in both the development and delivery of safety messages. This essential teen involvement takes many forms, one of the most important of which is the TDS Teen Advisory Board, a representative group of teens from across Texas who offer ongoing guidance and feedback to Texas Transportation Institute staff who are responsible for the TDS program. The activities described in this report have enhanced the substance and value of this teen feedback by bringing the board’s members together once each quarter for extensive, interactive involvement in the ongoing refinement and growth of the TDS program. Since the launch of TDS in 2003, the frequency and rate of teen drivers involved in fatal crashes has fallen faster and more steadily in Texas than in any other state, a distinction due in part to how TDS peer messaging augments and supports the state’s graduated driver license law. This increased teen involvement in TDS has helped to ensure continued success of the program. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting