Safe Driving

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for US teens, accounting for more than one in three deaths in this age group. In 2005, twelve teens ages 16-19 died every day from motor vehicle injuries. (CDC, 2008)

Most of these accidents have one thing in common: They were preventable!

Petty Safe Driving and CU-ASRI joined forces in 2007 to help prevent and reduce traffic crashes for adolescents and young adults by improving driver skills, attitudes, knowledge, and behavior. It is a national research-based advanced safe driving program designed for drivers in the highest risk category (ages 15 to 25) and designed to create situational awareness by placing participants in compromising driving situations in a controlled environment.

Goal

To give young drivers a hands-on learning experience designed to make them safer drivers:

• Curriculum is focused on both mental and physical skills necessary to operate a vehicle
• Creates awareness by placing students in compromising situations in a controlled environment
• Professional driving instructors coach students through the corrective responses
• Educates young drivers about the dangers associated with operating motor vehicles
• Instructs drivers how to safely operate an automobile by learning survival skills using vision, speed, distance and reaction components

Overview

• Students are put in hazardous driving situations in a controlled and safe environment with one of our professional driving instructors providing feedback from the passenger seat.
• Students perform exercises in cars provided by Richard Petty Driving Experience (front and rear wheel drive, ABS and non-ABS braking systems) to create a well rounded learning experience

Key Learning Objectives

• Target high-risk driving circumstances such as driving with passengers in the peer group, optimistic bias, adolescent emotionality, drinking and driving, seat belt use.
• Teach methods and techniques in both classroom and on-track settings developed to address lifestyle and psychosocial factors that can mitigate risky driving behaviors. Distractions today make driving more dangerous than ever! Nearly 8 out of 10 young people carry a cell phone and all too frequently, young drivers are dividing their attention between critical observations outside moving vehicles and potentially deadly distractions inside the vehicle.
• Provide competency-based training in both classroom and on-track settings that recognizes individual differences and is tailored to address the specific skill deficiencies of novices.
• Address immaturity and inexperience in both classroom and on-track components