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PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
According
to data from the National Center for Health Statistics, motor vehicle
crashes are the leading cause of death for youth between the ages of
15 to 20. In 1999, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA) reported that more than 8,175 young drivers were involved in
traffic crashes in which someone died. During the same year, 3,561 drivers
15 to 20 years old were killed, and an additional 362,000 were injured
in motor vehicle crashes nationwide. In fact, teenagers die in motor
vehicle crashes at twice the rate of other Americans.
Traffic data
for Onondaga County, New York reflects these national statistics. Although
youthful drivers represent only 6.5 percent of the county's driving
population, they are involved in 9.5 percent of the fatal traffic crashes,
and 13.5 percent of the injury-involved crashes.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
To help
address these alarming statistics, the Onondaga County Sheriff's Office
developed the Sheriffs Telling Our Parents and Promoting Educated
Drivers (STOPPED) program in 2000. Objectives of the program are
to:
- Prevent
death and injury to young drivers and other motorists by actively
involving parents at the outset of their children's driving careers
- Develop
an effective communication system between parents and police, when
youthful drivers are stopped for a traffic infraction
STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES
The
primary initiative of the STOPPED program is the Law Enforcement-Parent
Partnership, established by the Onondaga County Sheriff's Office in
May 2001. This important aspect of STOPPED is a working partnership
between the Sheriff's office and the parents of young drivers. It utilizes
a parental notification system to link law enforcement officials with
parents. Parents registering for the program receive an identification
sticker, which is permanently affixed to the windshield of their vehicles.
They then receive written notification anytime their vehicle is stopped
by the police, when the driver is under age 21.
The STOPPED
program emphasizes personal responsibility, and is designed to reinforce
the mature driving habits young drivers exhibit when they are accompanied
by their parents. Parental enrollment in STOPPED provides teenagers
with a constant visual reminder of their accountability when driving
alone, while providing parents a guaranteed notification system if their
teenager fails to drive safely.
Written parental
notifications include information such as time of day, location, reason
for being stopped and the number of passengers in the vehicle. Deputies
also indicate who was operating the vehicle, and whether or not citations
were issued. Parents have the opportunity to use this information about
their children's driving habits to help correct them.
As an incentive to both young drivers and their parents, legislation
is currently pending to authorize automobile insurance premium reductions
to those who enroll in the STOPPED Program.
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