Teens have 'drive' to promote car safety

CHRIS KELLY staff Shore Regional High School students Alex Jones (l-r), 16, and Jackie Bradley, 15, both of Monmouth Beach, and Brittney Caruso, 16, of Oceanport, work together to make a sign at the Keep the Drive event held at Monmouth University Nov. 18. WEST LONG BRANCH — Over 100 teens from throughout Monmouth County gathered at Monmouth University last week to participate in a driver education summit aimed at encouraging safe driving habits.

The "Keep the Drive New Jersey" driver safety summit held at the university's Anacon Hall in West Long Branch on Nov. 18 is one of 14 such educational conferences that the Allstate Foundation hosts across the country each year. Throughout the event, teens discussed ways in which they can avoid poor driving habits and encourage positive driving practices among their peers.

"We know that teens are more likely to make the right choices when they hear that the 'smart' choice is the socially acceptable one," said James Griffith, chairman of the Allstate Foundation's New Jersey chapter.

"Our goal at Keep the Drive New Jersey was to put teens in the driver's seats of their own lives. We presented them with the facts and empowered them to spread the word about the importance of making responsible choices whenever they are in a car," Griffith said.

Roughly 180 teens from seven Monmouth County high schools, including Shore Regional, Howell, Freehold, Freehold Township, Manalapan, Marlboro and Colts Neck participated in the summit where the students pledged to be responsible drivers and smart driving advocates.

During the event, Keep the Drive participants were provided with the tools needed to tackle the issue of dangerous teen driving through peer-to-peer grassroots initiatives.

The participants discussed ways to initiate smart driving conversations and created action plans for how they will communicate responsible driving decisions to their peers after returning to their schools.

The students also signed a commitment to Keep the Drive, saying that they pledged to drive smart and persuade their friends to do the same.

"The whole idea behind our approach is teen participation, and this is the living example

of it," Griffith said. "So we put the kids in the driver seat, metaphorically and literally, in regards to their safety," he said, adding, "They're the ones that have to carry the water."

He continued, "They are the activists. They are the advocates. When they take [this information] back to their peers it's a world of difference. They really believe it. They understand it and they share it."

According to officials at the Keep the Drive event, roughly 14 teens die as a result of motor vehicle accidents each day, a number that 16- year-old Shore Regional High School student Paige Woodie said was surprising.

"I didn't know that 14 people die every day," Woodie said. "That's a big number."

Woodie went on to say that getting teens involved in teaching each other about safe driving habits was a good way to prevent further deaths.

"It's a great idea to get kids involved, and make everyone aware that this is a big issue," Woodie said.

Monmouth University alumni and Olympic gold medalist and U.S. Women's Soccer team captain Christie Rampone was also on hand at the Keep the Drive event and said that she was happy to see the teens working to educate each other.

"I think it is absolutely amazing that you took the time out to come here to learn all of the things you are learning today with Keep the Drive," Rampone said, addressing the audience.

Rampone said that as a mother, she was shocked to see how many teens are killed as a result of poor driving habits.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, in 2006 more than 5,000 teens died in car crashes and more than 300,000 were injured. Most crashes were the result of driver error and speeding.

According to the 2008 Allstate America's Teen Driving Hotspots study, alcohol was identified as a contributing factor in fewer than 12 percent of teen crashes nationally between 2000 and 2006.

Additionally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that in 2006, 58 percent of young people ages 16 to 20 years old involved in fatal motor vehicle crashes were not wearing seatbelts.

Griffith said that the holiday season is an especially dangerous time for young drivers, as it can be a very hectic time on the roads.

"This is the time that a lot of kids get into crashes and lose their lives," Griffith said. "From October through Christmas, it's very deadly."

Despite advances in car and road safety technologies, restrictive driving laws and driver education programs, teen fatality rates have seen no significant changes over the past 10 years, according to the Allstate Foundation.

The Keep the Drive campaign is the result of a 2005 survey conducted by the Allstate Foundation, which found that teens preferred peer-to-peer safe driving programs as opposed to traditional programs. The traditional programs consisted of "talking at" teens, rather than involving them in the solution.

Over half of the teens that participated in the study said their friends would be influential in getting them to drive more safely. As a result, the Allstate Foundation decided to form the Keep the Drive campaign to utilize such peer-to-peer educational techniques.

Since the campaign launched in 2006, student summits have been held in 27 communities nationwide, involving more than 80 schools and reaching more than 2,300 teenagers.

The program is led by the National Drive Crew, a group of teens from across the country dedicated to making a difference in the lives of their friends and classmates.

Crew members serve as advisers to teens, providing input and guidance on all Keep the Drive strategies and tactics, in addition to leading activism projects online and in their hometowns.

Since the campaign was founded, more than 138 smart driving projects have been completed in nearly 100 communities, reaching over 40,000 teens.

The Allstate Foundation is an independent charitable organization made possible by subsidiaries of the Allstate Corporation. The Allstate Foundation sponsors community initiatives to promote safe and vital communities, tolerance, inclusion and diversity and economic empowerment.

Teen driving has been a priority issue for the foundation since 2005. For more information about Keep the Drive, visit the Web site at www.keepthedrive.com.

Contact Daniel Howley at dhowley@gmnews.

com