Statistically in Wisconsin, teenage drivers are the worst. Teens drive more recklessly and get into more accidents.
Earlier this week, I wrote about
ways to make teen drivers safer. I endorsed a program in Michigan called “STOPPED,” or Sheriffs Telling Our Parents and Promoting Educated Drivers. Parents are sent a letter by police when their teenager has been pulled over because of risky driving behavior. To participate in the program, parents register the vehicle online and a special sticker is sent to them to place on the vehicle’s windshield.
The sticker is a constant reminder to teen drivers that they’d better drive responsibly or their parents will find out. And the teens, whether they like it or not, have to understand they are not in charge, their parents are.
Today’s Milwaukee Business Journal has a story about another concept to assist younger drivers that I talked about on WISN some time ago.
This idea goes a lot further than the stickers used in Michigan. Cameras are placed in the cars used by teens to record and capture their driving habits.
Again, I like it. Who says taking advantage of and utilizing modern technology to keep an eye on a teen’s driving is a bad idea? Not me.
(I’m thinking a lot of parents of girls I knew when I was a teenager would probably have loved this).
Here’s the Business Journal article:
Keeping a watchful eyeAuto insurers offer parents the technology to monitor teen drivers
The Business Journal of Milwaukee - June 22, 2007Chris Teifke of Waukesha remembers what it was like to be a teenager. So after her 17-year-old son, Tyler, got his driver's license and bought a car, she and her husband, Don Teifke, had a video camera installed to keep an eye on Tyler's driving.
"I knew that this was definitely something I'd be more comfortable having him go off driving, knowing we'd be notified if he did anything risky or dangerous," Chris Teifke said.
In the first week, the Teifkes saw that Tyler hadn't been wearing his seat belt at times. They watched what the camera had recorded, and set up a reward system for keeping below a certain number of unsafe incidents. Tyler has been under goal nearly every week since the camera was installed April 25.
"He's certainly more aware," Chris Teifke said. "If you can imagine getting into a car and there's a camera there, you're going to think twice about doing all the crazy teenage driving stunts."
The system is offered through the Teifkes' insurance provider, Madison-based American Family Insurance, one of several such programs insurance companies are using to address the dangers faced by teen drivers.
Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers, and drivers between the ages of 16 and 20 have the highest fatality rate of any age group of drivers, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Although that age group represents 7.2 percent of Wisconsin drivers, they are 16 percent of drivers in crashes, according to a 2005 report by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.
"These teens, their driving skills have not been honed yet," said Loretta Waters, vice president of the Insurance Information Institute in New York. "All these products and developments in technology are helping the industry and parents and their teens to prevent injury or death and damage to their vehicles, which is a goal for everyone."
Better service In a highly competitive industry, insurance companies are always looking for ways to provide better services to their customers, said Eric Englund, president of the Wisconsin Insurance Alliance.
"Programs that contribute to better risk management that reduce losses do ultimately result in lower insurance rates," Englund said. "If these kinds of programs reduce the number of teenage accidents or the injuries from these accidents, those will be reflected in the rates people pay, no doubt about it."
There are indications that these programs do reduce risk. In the pilot for American Family's Teen Safe Driver Program, which began in March, risky behavior was reduced by 70 percent, according to Steve Witmer, spokesman for the company.
American Family, through a partnership with San Diego-based DriveCam, installs a video camera in the car and provides the service for a year free. It is currently available in three states, including Wisconsin, and they are considering expanding the program to more, Witmer said.
The camera is equipped with sensors that detect when the car's movement is irregular or dangerous. When triggered by those events, the recording of the event and 10-second video clips before and after are sent to be analyzed by DriveCam. Parents can view the clips, along with the analysts' recommendations, online.
"I guess a lot of other companies are working on similar things, but we think our
