SAFE GUARDING TEEN DRIVERS

Maine law enforcement agencies have teamed up to launch a common-sense approach that should help reduce teen driving fatalities, the leading cause of death among Maine youth. The aim of the SAFEGuard program, officially unveiled this week, is to notify parents of and encourage their involvement in stopping problem driving behavior before it leads to accidents.

The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control recently reported that “close parental management of teen drivers can lead to less risky driving behavior, fewer traffic tickets, and fewer crashes.”

Parental management is clearly needed. From 1999 to 2003, 152 teens were killed on Maine’s roads, the highest per capita death rate in the country. Last year, 34 teen drivers were involved in fatal crashes that resulted in 38 deaths. In only two cases were the teen drivers deemed not to be at least partially at fault. Speeding and inexperience were cited as the primary factors in these accidents.

Nationwide, drivers aged 16 to 20 make up just 6 percent of the driving population, yet 20 percent of all fatal motor vehicle crashes involved drivers in this age group. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 16- and 17-year-old drivers have the highest crash rate of any age group. Worse, more than a third of all deaths for people aged 15 to 20 are due to motor vehicle crashes.

SAFEGuard, which involved many local and state agencies, but was primarily spearheaded by the Maine State Police, Maine Chiefs of Police Association and the Maine Sheriffs Association, hopes to lower those numbers by improving communication between law enforcement officials and parents.

Maj. Randall Nichols of the Maine State Police says it is common for teen drivers to not tell their parents if they receive a traffic ticket or warning. Some young drivers have had their licenses suspended without their parents knowing. A teenage friend of Maj. Nichols’ family received five warnings for speeding from five different law enforcement agencies before she rolled her car over. Fortunately, she was not seriously hurt, but informing her parents of her tendency to driver too fast could have averted a potentially tragic accident.

Under the SAFEGuard guidelines, parents would be notified by phone or in person if their child receives a ticket. If there are other youths in the car, their parents would also be called in the hopes that the families would talk to one another and emphasize with the children the need to drive safely and legally. If alcohol is involved, parents would be asked to come to the scene to pick up their child. In some instances, parents would also be notified if a teen driver was given a warning. The standard officers are asked to consider is “If I were a parent would I want to know?”

A few other states have similar programs, but most require that parents sign up to participate, which keeps the numbers low. Maine is the first state to take a comprehensive approach. Maj. Nichols said 5 to 10 percent of parents are expected to be nonresponsive or even combative to police calls. For the rest of families, this program could be a lifesaver.