# Presentation: 687375

## To Driver Educate or Not to Driver Educate?

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Teen Crash Facts

- Teens (15-20 year olds) comprise 6.6% (12.6 million) of all licensed drivers (191 million)
- 8,278 teen drivers were involved in a fatal crashes in 2002
- Fourteen percent of all fatal crashes involved a teenage driver
- Sixteen percent (1,825,000) of all police reported crashes

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Teen Population Statistics

- There are approximately 20 million teenagers in the United States.
- 12.6 million licensed young drivers.

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Related Costs of Crashes

- 8,000 occupants of other vehicles were killedby young drivers
- 3,827 teen drivers were killed
- Over 324,000 teens drivers were injured in crashes in the year 2002
- Annual cost of automobile crashes involving young drivers: **$32,000,000,000!**

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Young Driver’s Crashes 1999  -  2002(15-20 years old)

- 1999 - Fatalities:   6,378
- 2000 - Fatalities:   6,434
- 2001 - Fatalities:   6,457
- 2002 - Fatalities:   6,724
-     Four year  total:  25,993

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Ancient History

- Driver Education reached its zenith in the late 1960s and early 70’s when 14,000 high schools offered driver training to over 2 million students.

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Ancient History

- This represented about 70% of those eligible for training
- The National Highway Safety Bureau (the forerunner of NHTSA) had 18 state highway program standards.
- Standard #4 was Driver Education

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Ancient History

- The Bureau supported the Driver Education Standard by providing State and Community Highway Safety Grant Program funds (Section 402) to the states to improve and evaluate their driver education programs.

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Ancient History

- The states primarily used these funds to expand the programs, with very little money used to improve the quality of the programs or to evaluate them.

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Ancient History

- The Agency then used Highway Safety Research and Development funds (Section 403) to initiate a major program of research, development and evaluation in driver education.
- Intent was to determine the extent of the positive benefit of driver education in reducing crashes.

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Ancient History

- Results of two studies were disappointing and lead to the eventual end of the Agency’s use of 402 funds to support driver education.
- In the years since, public school driver education went into a decline that seemed to follow the federal government’s decision to stop providing grant monies to the states for driver training.

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Ancient History

- Currently there are no federal requirements or standards for driver education programs.

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Current Events

- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has two cooperative agreements that deal with Driver Education and Training:

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Current Events

- The Indiana University of Pennsylvania's (IUP) Highway Safety Center in cooperation with the American Driver And Traffic Safety Education Association (ADTSEA),
- Develop Credentialing Program for Driver Education Instructors
- Develop Standardized Driver Education Curriculum
- Driver Education Public Information and Education

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Current Events

- The IUP and ADTSEA (cont’d),
- Two Stage driver education
- Cooperative Activities with AAMVA
- Technical assistance to States with GDL or those considering GDL.

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Current Events

- The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA).
- Develop Driver Education curriculum (Classroom and Behind-the-wheel).
- Develop a National Model Non-commercial driver testing system (With Indiana University of PA).
- GDL Parent/Teen participation guide

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Current Events

- AAMVA continued:
- Generic Driver manual
- Knowledge test item pool
- Skills test exercises
- Skills road test

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Current Events 

- Research projects include:
- Michigan: 2 stage driver education
- Texas: Effectiveness of Home schooled driver education
- Oregon: Effectiveness of Required Hours of Parental Involvement
- Georgia: Long Term Effects of GDL
- Multi-state study of the effects of GDL: Johns Hopkins University

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Back to the Future! 

- Increasing Corporate Involvement
- AAA
- Cingular Wireless
- Ford
- Daimler/Chrysler
- Mitsubishi
- NETS (Parent teen guide)

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Back to the Future! 

- Private Driver Education programs increasing
- Most are unregulated
- Web-based training increasing
- Video game generation
- Technology to keep their interest!

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Where do we go from here? 

- Why can’t we come to consensus on the importance of Driver Education?
- If training is so important in other areas of traffic safety why doesn’t Driver Education get the same attention?

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Where do we go from here?

- What currently is being offered is working but is it working well?
- Who is conducting what research, on what subjects?
- Handout: “Graduated Driver Licensing Research in 2003 and Beyond”, Hedlund, Compton, and Schults
- What is the future of 30/6?
- Does Driver Education need National direction?

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Where do we go from here?

- Driver Training is in transition.
- Corporate involvement.
- Distance learning.
- Home Schooling.
- Private schools.

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Summary

- Driver Education is not going away!
- What can be done to improve Driver Education?
- How do we harness technology to teach the Video-generation?

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Summary

- What role does corporate America play?
- Do the private schools need to be regulated by the states?
- What role does the federal government have in Driver Education?

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003

## Slide 26

- NHTSA/Office of Safety Programs/Fall 2003