ar crashes are the leading cause of permanent disability and death for teen drivers in every industrialized nation. The US Dept of Transportation estimated that in 1999, the economic cost of police-reported crashes involving drivers between 15 and 20 years old was $32.2 billion. Transport Canada reports that in 1998, the greatest number of fatalities and injuries were in the 15-24 year old age group at 24 percent and 26 percent, respectively.
Each year, there are over 2.5 million new teen drivers in North America alone. Each year over 4,000 teenage drivers will die as a result of car crashes and teens overall will be involved in over 9,000 fatalities, meaning that they don't just kill themselves but also passengers and pedestrians. Another 400,000 will be seriously injured in police-reported crashes.
No single rite of passage so focuses a parent on their teen's safety. As parents instruct their teen on reasonable driving behavior, so too, the teen expects these same reasonable driving behaviors of their parents. The I Promise Program promotes a contract of mutual safety aimed at reducing the risk of car crashes resulting in injury and death. A rear window decal provides a public declaration of mutual commitment to safe driving and displays a 1-800 number to enable community reports to a call center of driver behavior. A report is sent to the parent to be dealt with as a family matter. The program will be available through participating insurance companies.
This gives insurers a chance to practice loss prevention while at the same time do a phenomenal bit of social marketing. Once the program is launched, insurers will purchase yet-to-be-determined subscriptions to the program and pass them along to policyholders at no cost. The program has been developed and is set to launch in January, 2002. More information is available about the I Promise Program at www.papyrusgraphix.com/ipp.