This article is designed to raise
concern about teen driving fatalities and what can be done to drastically reduce this alarming statistic. While this article may be sensitive to some readers in certain industries, we would like to raise question as to what can be done to make our teens better drivers and how to alert others on road that a new driver is behind wheel.Our previous article raised question of whether driving age in country needs to be raised to age 18. With more teen fatalities on road each year than amount of deaths reported from 9/11, we must consider changes to our laws governing teen driving. From another perspective one could say that number of teen deaths on roads in U.S. are greater than number of deaths reported of U.S. soldiers before and after war in Iraq! Are our roads a war zone?
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported 3,657 drivers aged 15 to 20 years killed in 2003. In 2002, number killed in same age range was 3,827. While one would never make light of 9/11, let us consider amount of energy, government changes, money, war - to name just a few - put forth after 9/11. If only a fraction of this energy had been given to teen driving problem, perhaps we could have reduced teen driving related deaths in 2002 and 2003 – a staggering total of 7,484.
Following is a combined statement from - Gordon Booth, Chief Instructor of Drivetrain, Inc. in California, http://www.drivetrainusa.com, and - Eddie Wren of Drive and Stay Alive in New York, http://www.driveandstayalive.com, regarding our teen driving problem: “Research in several countries has shown not only that younger people are when they start to drive higher chances of having a serious or fatal crash within first year of driving, but also that a young person's brain is not fully developed until after teenage years have passed, and that this, in turn, also reduces a young person's abilities as a safe driver.
Wisdom and any genuine desire to protect young people both undeniably dictate that it is better if teenagers do not start to drive until they are at least 17 or preferably 18 years old.
It is noticeable that if parents can hold back a female for 6 months, so they do not start driving until 17 or 18, then one sees them mature at least 12 months. With males a hold back of about a year equals a maturity increase of about 6 months.”
Inexperience, risk taking behavior, and immaturity are cited as primary reasons for these accidents. Increasing driving age to 18 would not necessarily change all three primary reasons. Therefore, we must consider other possible solutions as well, such as driving education process itself.
Driver Education Comparison
Comparing our driver education process with other countries is an important step in exploring possible solutions. Using Germany as an example, we were able to obtain following information directly from German driving school online at http://www.fahrschule.de
- First you must be at least 18 years of age.
- After you have completed driver education course and school you are on probation for 2 years. During these 2 years a lesser driving violation would require you to re-take driver education course. A more serious driving violation would call for your driver’s license to be revoked. In either case when your driver’s license has been granted once again you will be on probation for 4 years.
- The driver training course covers almost 28 hours of classroom education followed by 35 hours of driving school on road to cover varying conditions of day, night and autobahn experience with an instructor.
The above only covers a small portion of driving laws in Germany. It is evident, however, that United States does not have these requirements. How to drive a car?
Teen driver’s aside, it is reasonable to suggest that many adults who have had their driver’s license for years are not knowledgeable enough on how to drive a car. They may be traffic regulation experienced, but what about actually using vehicle? During driver education process we should include how to handle a car under different conditions -- road conditions for rain, snow, ice, what to do if you have to slam on brakes at higher speeds, sudden unexpected responses requiring split second decisions, how to handle automatic and manual transmissions – to name just a few.
This type of training can be performed in driver simulation courses that are currently available from RoadSafety.Com (http://www.roadsafety.com). Larry Selditz, President of RoadSafety.Com had this to tell us:
“For past 18 months we have been involved in a research and development project to bring effective vehicle simulation to novice drivers and others. While simulators have been around for years, operative word here is “effective”, science-based simulation. We recently completed Research and Development phase of this project and are now in process of helping to develop a cost effective commercially viable simulation product. One of our Vice Presidents, Mr. Fred Craft, is forming a new company utilizing technology we helped develop. Fred is an industry expert in advanced vehicle simulation and I believe he would be an ideal contact for input for your article. I have forwarded a copy of your email to Fred.
I have always been a strong advocate of training and believe it is a key component to developing safe driving SKILLS. That is exactly what a simulator can help achieve. Our vehicle and driver monitoring system, a “black box”, is key to developing safe driving HABITS. As my friend Ron Thackery, Vice President of Risk and Safety for American Medical Response, once told me “what you monitor you can control – what you don’t, you won’t”. That applies to teenagers as well as paramedics. American Medical response operates largest fleet of ambulances in world and uses our black box to control and improve driver performance. The same principles that have reduced number of ambulance crashes by more than 90% are used in “black box” we developed for teenage drivers.”
