CALENDAR OF EVENTS“Driving Expectations” for
Better Teen Drivers
NEW YORK (March 20, 2007) – Teen drivers make up only 6.6 percent of licensed drivers, but constitute 14 percent of accidents and related deaths. Sixteen-year-olds have the highest crash rate of any age, and are three times more likely to die in a car crash than the average driver. In an effort to improve these odds, Toyota announced it is continuing its national program to promote safe driving among teens, Toyota Driving Expectations.
Toyota Driving Expectations, free to participants, is being offered at the following locations in 2007:* Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson, NJ, 4/13 - 4/15
* Six Flags Great America, Gurnee, IL, 4/20 - 4/22
* DTE Energy Music Center, Clarkston, MI, 4/27 - 4/29
* Santa Anita Race Track, Arcadia, CA, 10/12 - 10/14
* Phoenix International Raceway, Avondale, AZ, 10/19 - 10/21 and 10/26 - 10/28For more information, visit www.toyotadrivingexpectations.com.The program, offered free of charge, is designed to teach both teens and parents about defensive driving techniques against a backdrop of real-world scenarios. Many states and schools offer some form of driver's education, and many states now require a "provisional" or "graduated" driver's license for those under the age of 18. But it's the real-world distractions that can be the most dangerous to that age group.
The program is designed to help teens identify and react to dangerous driving situations. To better understand the critical relationship between distractions and reaction time, teens and parents navigate a driving course while drinking water, listening to loud music and talking on a cell phone. They also experience hard braking maneuvers on wet and dry pavement, as well as navigate multiple slalom driving courses under the watchful eyes of professional drivers.
In addition, a parent or guardian must accompany the teen driver to the four-hour program. Parents and teens are split into separate groups for part of the course, allowing parents to learn about vehicle safety technology, defensive driving and how to design and set realistic expectations for their teen. The program concludes with teens and parents reuniting to develop a safe driving contract to be put into practice when the families return home.
"Toyota Driving Expectations provides teens with important skill-development opportunities while providing parents with the knowledge and tools to keep their teens safe," says John Ulczycki, director of the Transportation Safety Group of the National Safety Council. "Teens will develop specific driving skills, and a better understanding of how to deal with peer issues and situations that can affect their driving and lead to crashes. Parents will learn about the risks associated with teen drivers, how to better manage those risks and how to be an effective coach for their teen driver."
(Source: Toyota)
