Press Release – for immediate release

Thursday, October 31, 2002

Contact:

Tracey Garrell, Executive Director
Healthy Lancaster
107 S. French Street, PO Box 1809,

Lancaster SC 29721
Phone (803) 285-6220; Fax (803) 285-6324

www.lancastercountysc.net/healthylancaster

Preliminary results for the I Promise Program – teen safe driving initiative

Lancaster County, SC - On a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 is “Totally Disagree” and 5 is “Totally Agree,” parents scored 4.6 for themselves and 4 for their teens on being a safer driver because of participating in the I Promise Program – teen safe driving initiative.

“We are thrilled with these initial results,” says Tracey Garrell, executive director of Healthy Lancaster and lead researcher on this project. “We now have something concrete to show that we make a difference in improving teen driver safety.”

With over 100,000 collisions annually in South Carolina and Lancaster County accounting for almost 1,300 of these, Garrell wanted to make an impact that would see more road users return home safely each time they took the car.

The I Promise Program begins by identifying parents as role models of safe driving behavior and then has them enter into a mutual safe driving pact with their new teen driver. To seal the agreement, parent and teen affix a rear widow decal to their vehicle that displays a toll-free number and ask the question, “Am I Driving Safely?” To date, no calls have been received for the 16 families involved with the program. “We see this as a good thing,” explains Garrell. “We identified that our goal is not to catch bad driving, but to promote better, safer driving, and that is what the preliminary research suggests.”

Feedback from parents involved in the program suggests that they became involved to reduce the risk of their teen having a collision. Most heard about the program through a local high school, where several teens died in previous years because of car crashes.

Healthy Lancaster is an organization dedicated to promoting health and safety among all Lancaster County residents. They have partnered with the I Promise Program – teen safe driving initiative and have made 100 registrations available at no cost to Lancaster County residents. With over 80 registrations still available, they think the preliminary survey results will encourage more parents to call and sign up their teen.

Would you like your teen to return home safely when she or he uses the car? Call Garrell at 803-285-6220 or register on Healthy Lancaster’s website: www.lancastercountysc.net/healthylancaster/

For more information on the I Promise Program visit: www.ipromiseprogram.com

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