Compliant Parents May be Unwitting Enablers to Unsafe Prom and
Graduation Nights, but Family Safe Driving Agreement at
www.LibertyMutualTeenDriving.com Can Play Significant Role in Deterring
Teens’ Dangerous or Distracted Driving Habits
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Each year, spring school rituals – prom and graduation – begin with so
much excitement and promise yet end in tragedy for hundreds of teen
drivers and their passengers. New research from Liberty Mutual
Insurance and SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) suggests
this season could be no different. According to a national survey of
more than 2,500 eleventh and twelfth graders, 90 percent of teens
believe their counterparts are more likely to drink and drive on prom
night and 79 percent believe the same is true for graduation night.
Yet, that belief does not translate to concern, as only 29 percent and
25 percent of teens say that driving on prom night and graduation night,
respectively, comes with a high degree of danger.
“Newspapers, television, YouTube and Facebook are rife with tales of
tragedy from reckless driving on prom and graduation nights, yet an ‘it
won’t happen to me’ attitude continues to be so pervasive among our
teens,” said Dave Melton, a driving safety expert with the Liberty
Mutual Research Institute for Safety. “Add to the alcohol factor
distractions like texting or talking on the cell phone while driving, or
the greater likelihood of multiple people in the car, and the crash
potential is very real.”
Real it is: there were 380 teen alcohol-related traffic deaths during
prom and graduation season (April, May and June) in 2007, according to
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. And the Insurance
Institute for Highway Safety reports 1,009 total teen fatalities
(alcohol and non-alcohol-related) in motor vehicle crashes during those
same months in 2008.
Alarmingly, parents may be unwitting enablers of teen
drinking and driving: more than one in three teens (36 percent) say
their parents have allowed them to attend parties where it is known that
alcohol will be served, and 14 percent say their parents have, in fact,
hosted such teen gatherings.
Parents Play a Key Role
The Liberty Mutual/SADD study suggests that parents have a tremendous
opportunity to enhance their role in deterring unsafe driving behaviors
among teens. More than one in five teens (22 percent) say their parents
have either not spoken with them about driving safety at all or have
only talked with them once. Past Liberty Mutual/SADD research strongly
indicates that teens who have regular conversations with their parents
about driving safety are less likely to drink and drive, less likely to
speed, and are more likely to wear their seat belts.
Further, more than half (52 percent) of teens admit they are not
responsible for abiding by any formal or informal family driving safety
rules. Yet, the opportunity certainly exists: 64 percent of teens who
have not entered into any written agreement with their parents about
safe driving rules say they would be willing to do so.
“When parents and teens build their safe driving plans together, it
prompts effective, face-to-face communication, which we know leads to
safer driving behaviors,” says SADD Chairman Stephen Wallace. “Teens
want freedom, trust and respect from their parents – exactly what teens
themselves tell us a safe driving agreement would provide.”
Indeed, 71 percent of teens say a formal safe driving agreement will
increase their parents’ trust in them and more than half (55 percent)
believe it would afford them more freedom. Importantly, those who do
have formal driving safety rules established with their parents are
significantly more likely than teens who have no family driving safety
rules to say such an agreement would encourage them to change their
driving habits (44 percent vs. 26 percent) and would make it easier for
them to resist peer pressure when it comes to making a decision between
safe and unsafe driving behaviors (58 percent vs. 42 percent).
Liberty Mutual and SADD offer a customizable Family Ground Rules safe
driving agreement at www.libertymutualteendriving.com
that provides a framework for parents and teens to set and agree to
specific rules around key safe driving issues such as speeding, the
number of passengers in the car, cell phone usage, texting while driving
and curfews. Upon acceptance, these ground rules – with mutually agreed
upon rewards and consequences – can be printed and posted on the
refrigerator so parents and teens can refer back to them throughout the
year.
Other Distractions
While drinking and driving is a dangerous behavior unto itself, many
teens are introducing other distractions into the mix when they are
behind the wheel. More than one-in-three teens say they often change
songs on their MP3 players, speed or text; while more than one-in-four
confess that they regularly drive with multiple passengers or talk on
the cell phone while driving. They do this despite significant
percentages who admit the behavior is very distracting. For example, 33
percent of teens report texting
while driving “often” or “very often,” even though 40 percent find
the behavior “very” or “extremely” distracting.
About the Liberty Mutual/SADD Teen
Driving Partnership
Since 1991, Liberty Mutual and SADD have collaborated on research and
responsible solutions to keep families safe behind the wheel. In
addition to the Family Driving Ground Rules agreement, www.LibertyMutualTeenDriving.com
also features helpful resources, such as tips on how to talk to teens
about driving distractions and dangers such as cell phones, text
messaging, speeding, and alcohol and drug use; video demonstrations of
safe driving techniques; state-by-state teen driving laws; individual
car safety scores; tips on buying and caring for a car; and an exclusive
50 percent discount for teens to take the National Safety Council’s
online Defensive Driving Course.
Teens also can use the website to remind their parents about driving
safety by taking a 10-question driving quiz and then challenging Mom and
Dad to match or beat their score.
About the Survey
Liberty Mutual and SADD commissioned ORC Guideline to conduct a
qualitative and quantitative survey to measure teen driving attitudes
and behaviors. The study was initiated with a series of five focus
groups held in Boston, Denver and Minneapolis in April 2009. The study
also involved surveying a total of 2,531 teens in eleventh and twelfth
grades from 25 randomly recruited high schools across the country in the
fall of 2009. These findings can be interpreted with a 95 percent
confidence interval with an error margin of +/- 1.7 percent.
About Liberty Mutual Group
“Helping people live safer, more secure lives” since 1912, Boston-based
Liberty Mutual Group (www.LibertyMutualGroup.com)
is a diversified global insurer and fifth-largest property and casualty
insurer in the U.S. based on 2008 direct written premium. Liberty Mutual
Group ranks 86th on the Fortune 500 list of largest U.S. corporations,
based on 2008 revenue. The company has over 45,000 employees located in
more than 900 offices throughout the world.
The eighth-largest auto and home insurer in the U.S., Liberty Mutual (www.libertymutual.com)
sells full lines of coverage for automobile, homeowners, valuable
possessions, personal liability, and individual life insurance. The
company is an industry leader in affinity partnerships, offering car and
home insurance to employees and members of more than 12,000 companies,
credit unions, professional associations and alumni groups.
About SADD
For more than 27 years, SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions)
has been committed to empowering young people to lead education and
prevention initiatives in their schools and communities. Founded as
Students Against Driving Drunk in 1981, SADD (www.sadd.org)
has become the nation’s preeminent peer-to-peer youth education,
prevention and activism organization, with nearly 10,000 chapters in
middle schools, high schools, and colleges nationwide. SADD now
highlights prevention of many destructive behaviors that are harmful to
young people, including underage drinking, substance abuse, risky and
impaired driving, and teen violence and suicide.
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Liberty Mutual
Glenn Greenberg, 617-574-5874
glenn.greenberg@libertymutual.com
or
SADD
Deborah
Burke Henderson, 508-481-3568
dbhenderson@sadd.org
Source: Liberty Mutual Group
