THE MAINE
VIEWPOINT
January/February 2003
Teen Driver Safety
– Agents take action
Ask any parent just what is an acceptable
number of deaths for teen drivers and they will unanimously tell you
zero. Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky agrees. He is on a campaign to reduce
teen driver fatality statistics in
While the
NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) pegs the national losses occurring from police reported crashes of drivers between 16 – 20 year-olds at US$32.8Billion for year 2000. These losses are significant and agents often feel the pinch when examining their loss ratios. However, now they can use a program designed to put a dent in these statistics, preserve reserves and see more teens arrive home safely each time they take the car.
Enter
After 2 years of research and development that included the input of thousands of stakeholders in traffic safety from around the world and then focus group research under a grant from the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation, Direnfeld launched the I Promise Program – teen safe driving initiative last January.
His program is now available across
Meanwhile, Healthy Lancaster, a health organization in
As Direnfeld tells it, the program relies first and foremost on parents as role models of responsible driving behavior. He is quick to point out that teens learn what is acceptable road behavior by observing their parents – long before they can even reach the wheel of the car themselves. But the real components of the program are a parent-youth MUTAL safe driving contract, a rear window decal and a vehicle monitoring service.
Upon completion of the robust contract covering everything from car maintenance to seatbelts to road safety to number of passengers, the parent and teen seal their commitment by placing a decal in the rear window that displays a toll free number and asks the question, “Am I Driving Safely”. Modeled after the 1-800 numbers you see on trucks, Direnfeld offers that this brings accountability to the promise of safe driving between parent and teen. Any calls received to the call center result in a letter being sent only to the parent, detailing the particulars of the call. Because the decal doesn’t label the driver as a teen, there is no concern about profiling. Because the safe driving contract involves a mutual commitment with the parent, hypocrisy is removed from the eyes of the teen.
If a letter is received, it is up
to the family to determine who the driver was by looking at the date, time and
location of the report. Parents and youth follow up on the details of the
letter as pre-determined in their mutual contract. Interestingly enough though,
in the past year only one call has been taken and that was to make a report of
“Perfect Driving” on a driver in
Gwadosky is looking at brining in legislation that would essentially mandate several of the conditions set out as “points of negotiation” for parent and youth in Direnfeld’s safe driving contract. But the I Promise Program goes further yet maintains control within the context of the family.
Knowing that teens are quick to rebel to anything imposed, the key feature of the I Promise Program is that it promotes negotiation on safe driving matters while keeping the issue within the family. The family is the strongest social unit says Direnfeld and a commitment made between a parent and child is significant - particularly when there is a system for accountability built in.
Agents are encouraged to go to the I Promise Program website and familiarize themselves with the program. To encourage parents to participate they need only direct parents to the website or request Direnfeld to email them a personalized order form that they can print and provide to parents directly. There is no cost to receive the personalized form and it makes a good marketing tool. It’s not often a true win/win like this comes along – The cost to the parent is $45.00. Not bad considering it may help save their child’s life – and improve your loss ratios.
Visit the website at www.ipromiseprogram.com .