A Peer-to-Peer Safety Program to Reduce Teen Driver Crashes in Texas

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers in the United States, with a total of approximately 6,000 fatalities per year for this age group. On average, a teenager is injured every 15 minutes in a motor vehicle crash in the United States. The vast majority of these incidents involve typical factors such as speeding, talking on cell phones, nighttime driving, teen passengers, low seat belt use and alcohol impairment. While safety practitioners know these risks well, there is a relatively low awareness level of these facts among teens and their parents. This paper documents a pilot program that was developed to increase awareness among teenage drivers regarding these common risk factors using a peer-to-peer approach. Teens provided input on the development of various materials and then delivered the message to fellow teens. To measure the impact on awareness levels, surveys of teens were conducted prior to and after implementation of the pilot project at both the school where the program was deployed, as well as a neighboring school that served as the “control group.” A statistical analysis of the survey results indicated that the project had a significantly positive effect on increasing awareness of key risk factors in teenage driving crashes. Further refinements to the approach used in the pilot project should place a greater emphasis on those communication mediums that were identified as being most effective. The analyses conducted in conjunction with the project also revealed that increased education and outreach regarding the graduated driver license law in Texas may be warranted.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/1933452137
• Corporate Authors:

  Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)

  Washington, DC  United States 
• Authors:
  • Henk, Russell H
  • Fette, Bernie
  • Ballard, Andrew
• Conference:
  • ITE 2006 Technical Conference and Exhibit Compendium of Technical Papers
  • Location: San Antonio Texas, United States
  • Date: 2006-3-19 to 2006-3-22
• Publication Date: 2006

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 18p
• Monograph Title: ITE 2006 Technical Conference and Exhibit Compendium of Technical Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Awareness; Before and after studies; Cellular telephones; Communication; Countermeasures; Crashes; Driver licensing; Driving; Drunk driving; Fatalities; Graduated licensing; Highway safety; Injuries; Night; Outreach; Passengers; Peer groups; Pilot studies; Public information programs; Risk assessment; Safety programs; Seat belts; Speeding; State laws; Surveys; Teenage drivers; Traffic crashes; Traffic safety; Utilization
• Uncontrolled Terms: Peer education
• Geographic Terms: Texas
• Subject Areas: Highways; Passenger Transportation; Research; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01025372
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 1933452137
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 31 2006 3:12PM