The Prom!

Imagine prom night. Everyone is dressed to the max; there is great music in the air and the feeling of putting on that corsage on your date’s arm. It has all the makings for a great and memorable evening. Something everyone is bound to remember for years and years to come. Everybody is ready to celebrate! While everyone is making plans for the night, parents and prom-goers should make up back-up plans too.


Parents: Be Proactive

Prom season is fast-approaching and many parents are busy helping their teens gear up for one of the most exciting time in their teen's life. Often overlooked is the need for these preparations to include frank, specific, and honest discussions with teens about how to avoid alcohol or drugs and stay safe on prom night.

• Encourage your teen to get a limo. This will reduce the chances of a teen driving drowsy and/or driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs or over-the-counter medication. The fewer teens actually drive on prom night, the safer they will be. Having a professional take over the task? Better.


• Talk about the risks and consequences of sex, drug and alcohol use. If you already have, why not another one? Studies show that it is important to talk about it often. It is important for parents to inform their teens about the possible regret of partaking in these activities. It is also important to help them understand the school's policy on alcohol and drug association and use.


• Contact the parents of your teen's date. Make sure that they are comfortable with the planned arrangements for the night. Make plans to meet each other to take pictures of the couple or group. Discuss after-prom plans and make sure all parties involved are okay with it. (Avoid sleepovers or hotel room rentals.)


• Communicate with the other parents of your teen's friends. Discuss the plans for the night, the hot spots and the need for locking up and inventorying all alcohol and prescription medication in advance. It reduces the chance of theft and takes the pressure off your teen from their friends. If a parent is hosting an after-prom party, parents have the right and responsibility to ask if they allow underage drinking. Underage drinking is illegal in any state. Another alternative is hosting an after-prom get-together or late night breakfast for your teen and their friends.
  
• Have an escape plan for a bad situation. Discuss with your teen that unplanned and unexpected situations where they feel uncomfortable will eventually come up on prom night. Come up with a code word or text message they can send to alert you to help them get out of the scene. Make sure that you reinforce with them that it is alright to call in at any time for advice or permission, and that you will be discrete.


• Set up times that they are to call and check in. These times could be when the prom is over, when arriving at an after-prom destination, or before heading home. Make sure to remind them to keep you notified of any changes in the plan.

Teens: Keep yourself safe and remind your friends to have a safe prom.

First of all, teens must understand that underage drinking is never acceptable. The fact is, during prom season, some parents choose to "look the other way," or say things such as “they’ll only be kids once.” It may be so, but the truth is that underage drinking is very dangerous. Many teens will be driving that night, which makes the combination of alcohol and lack of long-term defensive driving experience even more dangerous and may create consequences that turn a fun, memorable night a tragic one.

• Limit the passengers to one. The risk of teens getting into a crash increases as the number of passengers increase.


• Have the number of trustworthy cabs programmed on your phone. Have emergency cash to pay for these rides.


• Make sure you have plenty of rest the night before. The thought of the prom may get a wee bit exciting, but make sure you have plenty of rest to be energized for it.


• Think through and talk with your friends about pressure situations. Have a plan to handle them ahead of time.


• Consider going for breakfast, bowling or seeing a midnight movie after your prom. These activities are fun, no doubt about it, and none of them involve alcohol or illegal substances.

Post-Prom Plan

Almost as exciting as the prom is the post-prom plan. Kids from school might be throwing a party, or they might plan on hanging out after the prom is done. These are prime chances and opportunities for teens to have exposure and access to alcohol. In the rush of things, teens may feel pressured into trying to "fit in."

• Have your cell phone charged and with you at all times.


• Eat a good breakfast and lunch on the day of the prom, to keep your energy up.


• Never leave a drink unattended or accept a drink from someone else. If you have to leave your drink for even a moment, grab a new one.


• Drive on well-lit roads and make sure that the vehicle is properly maintained. This means making sure there’s enough gas, and that there are tools that are available, should you experience a flat. Take an extra second before moving into intersections. Over 1,000 people are killed each year by red light runners.


• Do not ride with someone who is fatigued or impaired in anyway. Make sure none of your friends do either. And should you encounter one, find out if they have friends or family who can drive home for them, or pick them up.


• Wear your seat belt. 70% of teens killed on prom weekends are not wearing seat belts. (NHTSA, SADD)


• At all times, know where you are, and know where you’re going. Make sure you also account for where your friends are, and that they and your parents know where you are.


• If someone passes out, call 911. The fear of getting into trouble isn’t worth the risk of them dying.


• Trust your instincts. If you feel uncomfortable over any situation on prom night, something might not be right. Leave immediately.


• Drive defensively on the road. Also, ask your passenger to be alert too.

Plan ahead, communicate, make good decisions and have a safe prom night!

Labels: parent responsibility, post-prom plan, prom safety, safe teen drivers, teen safety, underage alcohol use

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) conducted an interesting experiment in 2009 that tested the effectiveness of various in-vehicle monitoring systems on teen drivers. The study monitored the driving habits of 84 teen drivers with different types of in-vehicle technology to determine which ones had the greatest effect on both the teen drivers and their parents.

IIHS installed their own monitoring equipment in the study vehicles that recorded when drivers braked sharply or accelerated suddenly, didn’t use belts, and exceeded speed limits. The monitors used GPS and a satellite modem to transmit the data to a central processing facility and the data was made available for parents to review. In addition to its own monitoring systems, IIHS also installed different types of in-vehicle monitoring that are commercially available to parents of teen drivers. The 84 subjects were randomly assigned into four groups:

"Drivers in groups 1 and 2 heard audible alerts for risky maneuvers. A short, low-pitched buzz sounded for sudden braking and acceleration. A continuous low-pitched buzz sounded when the belt wasn’t buckled and stopped only when it was fastened. Speeding triggered a single beep at 2.5 mph over the posted limit, followed by continuous beeps at increasing pitch and frequency when the teenage drivers exceeded the limit by more than 10 mph.” For drivers in group 1, the information was immediately recorded and transmitted to the parents for review. The drivers in group 2 had the opportunity to correct their behavior and, if corrected within 20 seconds, prevent a report from being sent to their parents.

There were no in-vehicle alerts for drivers in group 3, just website notification. Group 4, the control group, was monitored but had no alerts or web notification.

The different types of monitoring systems included:

• Basic systems: CarChip Pro – http://www.carchip.com/Products/8226.asp, CarChipPro is essentially a black box that plugs into the car’s diagnostic recorder. The system can record speed, mileage, and other data. Once the information is downloaded, it provides parents with a history of the teen's driving. The system may also be set to turn into an alarm if certain speeds are reached or if the driver is braking too hard. The system is a tool to help discuss a teen's driving habits by allowing parents to show them the facts, and how to correct their driving behavior.



• GPS-based systems: Inthinc’s Tiwi - http://www.inthinc.com/products/tiwifamily This system monitors drivers in real-time by providing in-vehicle, verbal feedback to the driver when they are speeding, not wearing their seat belt or driving aggressively. Also, parents can be notified immediately of unsafe driving behavior (through text, voicemail or email) and all info is reported through an Internet-based portal for later review and discussion between parent and teen. This system gives teens a chance to correct their behavior before their parents are notified.



• Video systems: DriveCam: Teen Safe Driver Program package – http://www.drivecam.com/, This in-car camera system records "risky driving behavior" and sends them to DriveCam for third-party assessment of a teen driver's skills. The reports are then sent to parents, who can discuss the driving behavior with their teen.



• Smart keys: MyKey – http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=29172, First seen on the 2010 Ford Focus, the MyKey system is designed to help parents set certain limitations on their Ford vehicles for when their teens are driving. With the configurable key, this system is designed for parents who share their cars with teen drivers. Ford has announced that this technology will be available in all Ford vehicles beginning in 2012. The key features are:
  
  
  
  • Do Not Disturb, prevents use of cell phone and texting while the car is in motion.
  
  
  • Speed Control, limiting the top speed of the Ford vehicle to 80 mph.
  
  
  • Volume control, which allows parents to set a maximum volume level for the car's radio.
  
  
  • Beltminder, an alarm system that mutes the radio and plays a chime every 6 seconds, every minute or every 5 minutes when the seatbelt is unbuckled.
  
  
  • Fuel reminder: alerts the teen that they need to refuel, when fuel is low.
  
  
  
  

The results of the study were as follows:

• Seat belts – Seat belt use was already at a 94% level when the study began but increased among all four groups when the drivers were faced with a continuous buzzing or chiming noise. This has been found to be effective among all age groups.



• Stops and starts – Sudden braking and rapid starts can indicate aggressive driving or inattention to the driving environment. Sudden stops and starts fell in all groups relative to the control group but was especially significant group 1 with immediate web notification to their parents. The effects were even greater among those whose parents received periodic report cards.



• Speeding – Speeding was the most prevalent risky behavior noted among all groups. Speeding up to ten mph over the posted speed limit fell among the groups with alerts in their vehicles but then started to rise over time. Speeding was only significantly reduced among the groups whose parents were notified or those who had a chance to correct the problem before parental notification.



• All risky behaviors – Risky behaviors declined most among the two groups with parental notification but were most noticeable among group 2, the ones who had a chance to correct their behavior before parental notification. Risky behavior was somewhat higher in group 1, apparently because it was too late to correct the behavior and their parents were going to be notified anyway.

Parents will want to consider the results of this study when choosing an in-vehicle monitoring device for their teen driver. More information on the study can be found at: http://www.iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr4405.pdf

Labels: gps devices, in-vehicle technology, safe teen drivers, teen driver

North Dakota is the only state in the nation without a GDL system. As confirmed by the figures in the last few years, vehicular crashes are the leading cause for teen fatalities not only in North Dakota, but all over the country.

Currently, North Dakota is the only state that has not yet implemented a graduated licensing program. North Dakota only has two stages to its licensing, with a learner's permit being available at age 14, and a full license granted at the minimum of age 16. They lack the intermediate stage, which is the time new drivers should have passenger and nighttime driving restrictions.

This has prompted the North Dakota Coalition for Graduated Drivers Licensing which includes the North Dakota Highway Patrol, the North Dakota Department of Transportation, the North Dakota Department of Health and AAA North Dakota to support a bill to amend that.

The graduated driver's license bill, which is to be presented to the 62nd Legislative Assembly this year recommends a change: three stages to the licensing for new drivers. The additional intermediate phase will include the necessary passenger and nighttime driving restrictions during the first few months of unsupervised driving to better train new drivers into acquiring the skills necessary to be better-equipped safe drivers on the road.

Labels: GDL, gdl laws, Graduated Driver Licensing, graduated licensing, learners permit, north dakota, safe teen drivers