Healthy Lancaster offers teen safe driving program

Sunday, October 17, 2002

In South Carolina car crashes occur every 5.2 minutes and new crash statistics show that more than 4 teens are injured or die daily on our roads and highways. To compound the problem seat belt use in South Carolina lags behind the national average at 69% adding to the vulnerability of road users.

In Lancaster County specifically a total of 1,271 car crashes were counted in recent statistics.

“That’s the bad news”, explains Tracey Garrell of Healthy Lancaster. “The good news is that even in view of these terrible statistics, this is an improvement over the previous year.”

Healthy Lancaster is an organization dedicated to improving the vitality of our community through programs and services that promote health and safety among all Lancaster County residents. More recently the organization has concentrated on improving road safety by reducing the risk of teen driver car crashes.

Through a partnership with the I Promise Program – teen safe driving initiative, Healthy Lancaster has begun a campaign involving parents, teens and community members within this community. Parents can enroll their teen in the safe driving program while Healthy Lancaster picks up the tab. Fourteen teens and families have already registered.

“We think these are parents concerned about the well-being of their sons and daughters and recognize they can be active participants in their safety,” says Garrell. “With only 86 free registrations left for a county of thousands we wish we could do more but realize we must at least get started.”

Parents who want to increase their teen’s safety with the car can either go to the I Promise Program website at www.ipromiseprogram.com or to the Healthy Lancaster website at www.lancastercountysc.net/healthylancaster Order forms are available on both websites.

Some parents think their teen doesn’t need such a program,” says Gary Direnfeld, developer and director of the initiative. “It’s as if they think good and trustworthy teens don’t have car crashes, but they do. Just ask any parent whose teen has been killed or hurt.”

According to statistics, 25% of teen drivers crashing in their first year of independent driving.

For more information, call Garrell at 285 6220.

Contact:

Tracey Garrell, Executive Director
Healthy Lancaster
107 S. French Street, PO Box 1809, Lancaster SC 29721
Phone (803) 285-6220 Fax (803) 285-632 tgarrell@lancastercountysc.net www.lancastercountysc.net/healthylancaster

Gary Direnfeld, MSW, Executive Director
I Promise Program
20 Suter Crescent, Dundas, Ontario, Canada L9H 6R5
(905) 628-4847 gary123@sympatico.ca www.ipromiseprogram.com