Motor vehicle crashes are the major cause of death and injury among adolescents. Crash risks are particular elevated at licensure, declines rapidly for about 6 months (consistent with an effect of learning), and then decline more slowely for a number of years. Risk is particularly elevated under certain driving conditions, such as wiht teen passengers, at night, while engaged in secondary in-vehicle tasks. PRB has developed a program of research, including observational and prospective studies, designed to increase understanding of teen driving risks and reduce crash risks during the early months of licensure. We are conducting observational studies to determine the nature of teen driving risk. Specifically, we are interested in determining how driving performance improves over time and varies under certain driving conditions, such as with teen passengers and at night. Results from our previous studies indicated that teen risky driving behaviors, traffic violations, and crashes are lower among teens whose parents limit the driving privileges of novice teens. Based on these findings, the Checkpoints Program was developed to increase parental management of teen unrestricted driving through the use persuasive communications (PCs) in the forms of newsletters and a model driving agreement. Several randomized trials have been conducted establishing the efficacy of the Checkpoints Program. The results indicate significant differences on driving limits, risky driving, tickets, and crashes through 12-months post licensure. Current studies are designed to evaluate methods for increasing the effectiveness of parent interventions. Other studies are underway to evaluate the effects on novice teen driving performance of driving experience, teen passengers, and night driving.

Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
Budget End
Support Year
10
Fiscal Year
2008
Total Cost
$311,482
Indirect Cost
City
State
Country
United States
Zip Code
Simons-Morton, Bruce; Ehsani, Johnathon P (2016) Learning to Drive Safely: Reasonable Expectations and Future Directions for the Learner Period. Safety (Basel) 2:
Jackson, John C; Albert, Paul S; Zhang, Zhiwei et al. (2013) Ordinal latent variable models and their application in the study of newly licensed teenage drivers. J R Stat Soc Ser C Appl Stat 62:435-450
Simons-Morton, Bruce G; Cheon, Kyeongmi; Guo, Feng et al. (2013) Trajectories of kinematic risky driving among novice teenagers. Accid Anal Prev 51:27-32
Zakrajsek, Jennifer S; Shope, Jean T; Ouimet, Marie Claude et al. (2009) Efficacy of a brief group parent-teen intervention in driver education to reduce teenage driver injury risk: a pilot study. Fam Community Health 32:175-88
Simons-Morton, Bruce G; Ouimet, Marie Claude; Wang, Jing et al. (2009) Hard Braking Events Among Novice Teenage Drivers By Passenger Characteristics. Proc Int Driv Symp Hum Factors Driv Assess Train Veh Des 2009:236-242
Ando, Mikayo; Asakura, Takashi; Ando, Shinichiro et al. (2007) A psychoeducational program to prevent aggressive behavior among Japanese early adolescents. Health Educ Behav 34:765-76
Simons-Morton, Bruce (2007) Parent involvement in novice teen driving: rationale, evidence of effects, and potential for enhancing graduated driver licensing effectiveness. J Safety Res 38:193-202
Olsen, Erik C B; Lee, Suzanne E; Simons-Morton, Bruce G (2007) Eye Movement Patterns for Novice Teen Drivers Does 6 Months of Driving Experience Make a Difference? Transp Res Rec 2009:8-14
Simons-Morton, Bruce G; Hartos, Jessica L; Leaf, William A et al. (2006) The effects of the checkpoints program on parent-imposed driving limits and crash outcomes among Connecticut novice teen drivers at 6-months post-licensure. J Safety Res 37:9-15
Iannotti, Ronald J; Nansel, Tonja R; Schneider, Stefan et al. (2006) Assessing regimen adherence of adolescents with type 1 diabetes. Diabetes Care 29:2263-7

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