Canadian solution to rising
insurance rates
Reduce insurance costs at source by reducing crashes
by Gary Direnfeld
Canadian
solution to rising insurance rates is reducing crashes - in the US
Hamilton,
ON - Tuesday, July 22, 2003-- While governments are looking at restricting
automobile insurance rates, a Canadian initiative has been busy reducing costs
at source by preventing car crashes and hence removing costs associated with
claims. The I Promise Program - teen safe driving initiative is a made in Canada
solution to the problem of teen driver safety and is available across North
America. Teen driver car crashes are the leading cause of permanent injury and
death in this group - a fact costing insurers millions of dollars annually and
immeasurable suffering to parents.
"Now
in our second year of operation, we have learned that this program has reduced
teen driver crashes in Lancaster County, South Carolina by 29%," says Gary
Direnfeld, developer and director of the program. "This data mirrors
reductions seen through graduated licensing, which should be no surprise as our
program is akin to "parent controlled" graduated licensing. We are now
starting to hear from parents saying, "shoulda, woulda, coulda". These
are parents who are kicking themselves for not using the program as their teens
have since been involved in crashes."
Even
the World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes the impact of car crashes as a
health issue and as such has designated "Road Safety" as the theme of
next year's World Health Day (WHD), to be observed, April 7, 2004.
The
I Promise Program is a private initiative and recognizes that the subset of the
population at greatest risk with respect to car crashes are novice young
drivers. To that end, the I Promise Program provides parents with the necessary
tools to discuss and "contract" rules for the safe and proper use of
the family car as they are set to drive independently. Next, parents and youth
affix a rear-window decal that displays a toll-free number and asks the
question, "Am I Driving Safely". This decal facilitates community
reports on driver behaviour and so acts as a mechanism of accountability to the
"Parent-Youth Mutual Safe Driving Contract".
Developed
over the course of two years with input of stakeholders in traffic safety
worldwide and then focus group research carried out under a grant from the
Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation, the program has been operational in North
America for 18 months. With about 175 teens now on the program, representing 11
US states and 3 Provinces, only one call has been taken by call center and that
was to make a report of "perfect driving". "We believe this bodes
well for the program, as our goal is to improve driver safety, not catch bad
drivers", explains Direnfeld.
Direnfeld
also believes that it behooves every parent to use all strategies to improve
their teen's safety when new behind the wheel and all insurers to adopt a
program that promotes the win/win of loss and injury prevention.
Direnfeld's
mission is for all insurers to offer parents the option of participating in the
program with their young novice drivers and in so doing, receive a modest rate
reduction that mirrors those provided for attending driver education, or for
maintaining good grades. He encourages parental and political support to make
this happen. Insurer participation also provides the most efficient delivery of
the program as it will be available when parents call their insurer to add their
teen to the policy. In the meantime, parents can obtain a registration form for
the program simply by going to the website: www.ipromiseprogram.com
###
Gary Direnfeld, MSW,
Executive Director I Promise Program Inc. 20 Suter Crescent, Dundas, Ontario,
Canada L9H 6R5
(905) 628-4847 garydi@sympatico.ca
www.ipromiseprogram.com