Recent Epidemic of Young Driver Deaths Prompts Group to Host Free Safety/Car Care Educational Clinic

Experts Provide Young Women Drivers With Essential Driving Tips, Auto Care Basics

SILVER SPRING, Md., Jan. 7 -- Fatality data show that young drivers continue to be over-represented in fatal crashes. In the Washington, DC area alone, more than twenty young people have been killed on the roads in recent months. For young females, the outlook is even more deadly: in the ten-year span between 1992 and 2002, young women's fatal crash rates escalated by 42 percent.

In response to these alarming trends, CarMax, Inc. , the nation's leading specialty retailer of used cars, and Safe Smart Women (S2W) today held a free educational clinic for Montgomery County, MD-based Girl Scouts of driving age. Montgomery County has been especially hard-hit by the local spate of young driver fatalities, with a single September 2004 weekend claiming the lives of five County teens.

"In the face of these overwhelming crash statistics, it's critical to provide opportunities for our young women drivers to become smarter and safer behind the wheel," noted Kristin Backstrom, executive director, Safe Smart Women. "Thanks to the CarMax Foundation, we can bring valuable learning resources to local communities such as Montgomery County that have been directly touched by the recent surge in teen driving fatalities."

The event was held at CarMax's store in Rockville, MD and featured remarks by Backstrom and Trish Serratore, vice president, Automotive Service Excellence, as well as appearances by Lizzie Nimmich and A.J. Willingham, student advisors for S2W. The Clinic was led by experts demonstrating the following on actual vehicles:

  * Driver safety strategies, including information on vehicle safety
    features
  * How to buy a safe car
  * Basic car maintenance, and why it's important
  * Learning awareness skills to improve driver safety

Future CarCare Clinics will be posted on http://www.s2w.org/ as dates and locations are announced.

About Safe Smart Women

S2W is a Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization working to educate, empower and enable young women drivers with safety strategies to improve their behind-the-wheel performance and their safety. The campaign focuses on hands- on skill building with cars and promotes safety messages through its interactive Web site, distributed materials, and free CarCare Clinics.

About the CarMax Foundation

The CarMax Foundation's National Funding Program assists nonprofit organizations that either address and improve auto safety for families and children or build a competitive workforce through technical automotive training.

About CarMax

CarMax, a Fortune 500 company, is the nation's leading specialty retailer of used cars. Headquartered in Richmond, Va., CarMax currently operates 59 used car superstores in 27 markets. CarMax also operates nine new car franchises, all of which are integrated or co-located with its used car superstores. During the twelve-month period ended November 30, 2004, the company sold 238,200 used cars, which is 92% of the total 259,402 vehicles the company sold during that period. For more information, access the CarMax Web site at http://www.carmax.com/.