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The New Hampshire Pediatric Society is pleased to announce that, through the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Allstate Foundation has awarded a $25,000 grant to the society to promote a safer driving experience for New Hampshire teen novice drivers. New Hampshire is one of eight states to receive this funding from the Allstate Foundation.
In 2009, New Hampshire 16 and 17 year old drivers represented just over 2 per cent of all licensed drivers. They were involved in 11% of the crashes. This reality is consistent with national trends.
Two primary activities will be funded through this grant. Because of the high crash rate experienced by novice teen drivers, one effort will be to promote the importance of enhancing New Hampshire’s current graduated licensing (GDL) provisions. Graduated licensing is a learning process designed to introduce novice teen drivers to the driving experience in a low-risk way, as they become more mature and develop their driving skills. Research indicates positive effects on the crash experience of young drivers in states that have strong GDL programs that include night time driving and passenger limitations based on established best practice.
Funds received from this grant will also allow for the creation of teen safe driving programs within four New Hampshire high schools. Currently three schools have been chosen to participate including Spaulding High School in Rochester, Dover High and Epping High.
The high school programs will be designed to educate teens on the importance of always making the best choices that they can, both as drivers and as passengers, and the importance of wearing seat belts each and every time they are in a vehicle. Another emphasis will be to create an increased awareness that unsafe choices can and do result in life changing outcomes.
For more information, please contact Steve Gratton, Teen Safe Driving Program Coordinator, by e-mail at sgratton@tds.net or 603-848-2131 or Howard Hedegard, Highway Safety Specialist, Injury Prevention
Center at Dartmouth at howard.hedegard@dartmouth.edu or 603-653-8360.
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