No other hazard or behavior comes close to claiming as many teen lives as driving. Approximately 100 teens die each year in car crashes in Virginia.

Partners for Safe Teen Driving is conducting a campaign with the release of the music video "It Can Wait" to let students and parents know about the dangers of texting or talking on a cell phone and driving. CLICK HERE for more information.

Involved, informed parents have long been considered the most influential factor in promoting safe teen driving. The mission of Partners for Safe Teen Driving is to help communities develop a parent education program, so that parents can guide their children through the first perilous years of driving.

Many school divisions and communities in Virginia have partnered to develop Safe Teen Driving programs. Approximately 43 communities now require parents of teen drivers to attend a meeting. At this meeting, parents receive information about Virginia's graduated licensing procedures, current driving techniques, procedures for helping teach their children to drive, curfew restrictions, and more.

A kit with step-by-step information about how communities can start their own programs has been sent to every school division in Virginia. CLICK HERE for more information.

CALLING ALL HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISTS!
Use your journalism skills to make a difference and create awareness about the No. 1 killer of teens: motor vehicle crashes. An average of 11 teens dies everyday in preventable car crashes. You can make a difference and help save young lives through the Keep the Drive High School Journalism Awards sponsored by Allstate Foundation. Student journalists may enter either the Print Category or Broadcast Category, but not both. Allstate Foundation will be rewarding teens with a total of $7,500 through six awards (three in each category). For information about the contest, go to http://www.allstatefoundation.org/HSJ.

January 12, 2012
Bill would make it easier for Va. police to stop distracted drivers - WASHINGTON -- A startling statistic on traffic deaths in Virginia has reinvigorated calls for stricter texting-while-driving laws in that commonwealth. The Old Dominion recorded 250 more traffic deaths than Maryland in 2011, which the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety blame on what it says is the state's lax enforcement of distracted drivers.

January 5, 2012
Cell phones lead to fatal distracted driving - JRC Auto News If you talk on your cell phone while driving, you're a danger to yourself and others. This isn't an opinion, but a fact supported by nationwide accident statistics. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2009, 5,474 people were killed and as many as 448,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes reportedly involving distracted driving. Of those killed, 995 of the accidents were related to cell phone distraction. That's 18 percent of the total of distracted drivers killed in vehicles. Another five percent of the 24,000 reports of injuries in distracted driving-related crashes involved distraction by cell phone.

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