National Teen Driver Safety Week – October 20 – 26, 2013
As we perused the news this week we kept coming across interesting articles and news segments which focused on teens’ driving skills. This sparked our interest and we discovered that we were indeed smack in the middle of National Teen Driver Safety Week (NTDSW).
NTDSW was established by the US Congress in 2007 and it is traditionally held the third week of October. The impetus for establishing the NTDSW was a series of tragic motor vehicle crashes that took place in the State of Pennsylvania. These events prompted Representative Charlie Dent (R-PA) and Senator Bob Casey (D -PA) to introduce a resolution creating National Teen Driver Safety Week. 50 other members of Congress co-sponsored the resolution and it was supported by traffic experts from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm Insurance Company.
Some statistics regarding teen drivers…
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has a section of their website dedicated to developing a strategy to prevent teenagers’ motor vehicle-related deaths and injuries. Some strategies are: increasing seat belt use, implementing graduated driver licensing, reducing teens’ access to alcohol, and parental responsibility. Not adhering to these strategies contributes to the fact that motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death for teenagers. And teenagers are involved in three times as many fatal crashes as all other drivers.
Two videos that you should share with teens
We often write about teenagers and addiction, we also write about parenting and how parents‘ vigilance can save lives and intervene to begin the journey of recovery. We thought you might find these two news’ videos very helpful to start the conversation with your own teens. Each was produced to participate in National Teen Driver Safety Week (NTDSW).
“Hayden High Students Experience Effects of Drunk Driving” from WIBW.com in Topeka, Kansas.
If you would like to view the video, you can see it here.
“Teens find out just how deadly and damaging drunk driving can be” from KATU.com in Oregon City, Oregon.
If you would like to view the video, you can see it here.
