Teen Safety Program Launches With New Video Game That Increases Teens' Awareness and Understanding of Driving Risks

Auto Crashes Are the Number One Killer of Teens

Road Ready Teens Releases Online Game - StreetWise

AAA, HP, WildTangent and Yahoo! Autos Named as New Partners in the Safety Effort

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 -- Released today, Road Ready StreetWise is a new driving safety video game that increases teens' awareness and understanding of driving risks. Teens who played the game were more likely to take steps to protect themselves from driving risks according to initial game research conducted by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.(1)

The video game is part the official launch of the Road Ready Teens safety program, a Chrysler Group initiative to help parents ease their teens into driving while gradually exposing them to and educating them about the risks they face on the road.

The company also introduced a research-based guide for parents called Get Road Ready: A Parent's Guide to Safely Ease Teens into Driving, and announced four new partners that will help spread the word about the new safety program's resources. The American Automobile Association (AAA), HP, WildTangent, and Yahoo!(R) Autos join Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and the National Safety Council (NSC) as program partners.

Vehicle crashes are the number one killer of teens.(2) In 2002, nearly 6,000 teens were killed, 300,000 were injured and more than 1.6 million were involved in vehicle crashes.(3) According to research conducted by Chrysler Group earlier this year, driving safety is a top concern for six out of ten parents when it comes to their teens.(4)

"As a parent of teens, I understand how frightening these statistics are and the challenges that face young drivers," said Dr. Dieter Zetsche, President and CEO, Chrysler Group. "That is why we created a program to communicate with teens in their own language and give parents resources to help protect their kids. If all families would adopt graduated licensing guidelines like those reflected in the Road Ready Teens guidelines, tens of thousands of teen crashes could be prevented each and every year."

Road Ready Teens' materials, including StreetWise, the Parent's Guide and other resources are available at no cost on the program's Web site at www.roadreadyteens.org.

Many of the recommendations that underpin Road Ready Teens are embodied in Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) laws in most states. However, no state's law includes the entire slate of guidelines.

"With so many teens being injured or killed on our nation's roadways, properly training young drivers about vehicle and driver safety will save lives and reduce injuries in this high risk population," said Dr. Jeffrey W. Runge, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Administrator. "Implementing comprehensive GDL systems will have a positive impact on the problem because GDL can reduce teen crashes as much as 27 percent in states that enact and enforce these laws."

Road Ready Teens is a research-driven, home-based program for parents and teens. The program offers tips and tools designed to help teens gain the necessary driving experience and maturity behind the wheel before tackling high-risk driving situations.

"The recommendations in Road Ready Teens reflect the best of GDL," said Alan McMillan, President and CEO, NSC. "Parents need not wait for a law to keep their teens safe. Road Ready Teens gives parents the guidelines and power to keep young drivers safe."

Susan Pikrallidas, Vice President of Public Affairs, AAA added, "AAA Clubs have led the effort to implement GDL laws in states nationwide. Road Ready Teens is a great home-based effort to complement our efforts to strengthen GDL laws and raise awareness of the risk facing teens."

Unique to the Road Ready Teens program is its outreach to teens through the StreetWise video game. The Road Ready Teens guidelines are imbedded in the game, making learning seamless and part of the fun. The game, which is available free on the Web, combines the popularity and excitement of video games with the latest research on the education potential of these games to challenge and teach teens about driving risks and safety practices. WildTangent, the leading online game publisher, created StreetWise.

"On average, teens spend 55 minutes a day playing video games," said Alex St. John, CEO, WildTangent. "Using a video game that entertains and teaches teens makes good sense."

To insure that the game achieved its safety goals, researchers at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute conducted an initial evaluation of the game during its development. Researchers found that the teens who played StreetWise, said that the game helped them better understand the driving risks they face as young drivers and increased their awareness of these risks. A majority of these teens said they were more likely to take steps to protect themselves from driving risks and were more receptive to driving guidelines as a result of playing the game.(5) Researchers also noted that teens enjoyed the game and agreed that a game format was a better way to teach driving risks than other communications such as videos or brochures.

"It can be tough to make an impression on a teenager, so reaching them through a medium they enjoy is a strategy we fully support," said Tom Anderson, Vice President of Consumer Computing, HP. "HP is pleased to be helping broaden the reach of StreetWise and the Road Ready Teens program."

The game has six missions, each progressively more difficult. Teens can challenge each other on the game and post their scores to national and local leader boards. Key challenges and experiences in the game include the impact of teen passengers in the vehicle, nighttime driving, distracted driving and issues related to drinking and driving.

"Last year, 29 percent of 15- to 20-year-old drivers killed in motor vehicle crashes had been drinking. Twenty-four percent were intoxicated," said Wendy J. Hamilton, National President, MADD. "This is a tragedy no parent or friend should ever have to experience. It's up to all of us to give teens the proper guidance to keep them safe."

Road Ready Teens has the potential to reach more than 40 million families in its first year. Both the Parent's Guide and StreetWise will be promoted through the Road Ready Teens partner alliance. AAA will promote the program through its network of state and local offices, with the potential of reaching more than 28 million drivers. MADD will distribute the Parent's Guide and promote StreetWise through its 600 local affiliates nationwide and through its new multimedia show, FACE, which will appear at nearly 2,000 high schools nationwide, and various traffic safety groups. Chrysler, Jeep(R) and Dodge dealers will distribute the Parent's Guide at dealerships. HP will be working with the Road Ready Teens program to help broaden the reach of the campaign and help increase awareness of teen driving safety.

To support this effort, Yahoo!(R) Autos, (http://autos.yahoo.com/), a site attracting 2.4 million visitors monthly, will be committing promotional support to drive even more parents and teens to the Road Ready Teens Web site. Chrysler and Yahoo!(R) will be exploring additional initiatives to help prepare teens and parents of teens for safety on the road in the future.

Photos from the press conference will be available at www.roadreadyteens.org.

Yahoo! and the Yahoo! logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Yahoo!, Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

(1) Bingham, C. R.; Shope, J. T. 2003. An Initial Evaluation of the Road Ready Teens Video Game: Final Report. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Transportation Research Institute, Social and Behavioral Analysis Division. Report No. UMTRI-2003-28.

(2) Centers for Disease Control, 2000

(3) Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, teens ages 16-19, 2002

(4) Public Opinion Strategies for Chrysler Group, (February 2003). Survey of 400 parents of teenagers ages 15 to 18. Margin of error: +/- 4.9%. Question: "Please tell me the health and safety risk facing your teenager/teenagers that concerns or worries you the most?" Driving safety and related driving issues (including driving safety (39%), car crashes (25%), drinking and driving (11%), and speeding (6%) are a top concern with 59 percent of parents. Other health and safety risks that are top of mind for parents are: drug abuse (31%), alcohol abuse (17%), pregnancy or STDs (13%), violent crime (11%), diseases like cancer or AIDS (7%), peer pressure (6%), war (4%) and suicide (3%). Totals do not add up to 100 since more than two responses were accepted.

(5) According to the University of Michigan's report, "Positive attitudes toward driving guidelines increased 2.5 percent from pre- to post-test. It is important to note that most of the respondents had completed driver's education classes, and had a driver's license that allowed them to drive only when accompanied by an adult. Therefore, the teens were familiar with Michigan's Graduated Driver Licensing guidelines. This familiarity may have contributed to an elevated positive attitude toward driving guidelines before the teen played the game, which would have lessened the effect of the video game on attitudes toward safety guidelines. The effect of the video game on guideline acceptance may be greater for teens that have not yet enrolled in driver education classes."