Parent classes appear to lead to reduction in teen wrecks

The teen crash rate in Albemarle County has decreased several fold in the past few years.

What exactly has caused the decline in crashes among high school students is unclear, but local officials say relatively new mandatory seminars for parents might have something to do with it.

“Educators have been saying for years: If mom and dad get involved in the education of their kids, good things are going to happen,” said Richard Wharam, community education coordinator for Albemarle schools.

The county’s teen crash rate — the number of first-year drivers who get in crashes per 100 students — was 21.8 in 2004, compared with 12.3 in the 2005-06 school year, 6.8 in 2006-07 and 4.3 in 2007-08.

Albemarle began holding the free parent seminars in January 2006, Wharam said.

As with Albemarle, public school divisions throughout the state that have required parents to attend seminars in recent years designed to teach their children how to drive have seen declines in crashes. However, some localities that haven’t required parent seminars have also seen major declines in teen crashes — raising the question of how much the declines can be attributed to the parent seminars and how much other factors can be credited, such as higher gas prices that have caused people to drive less.

Wharam said drivers education curriculum in Virginia has also improved significantly in recent years.

Though Charlottesville High School does not require parents to attend seminars before students can receive learner’s permits, teen crash rates in the city have dropped drastically in recent years, from a crash rate of more than 22 in 2004, down to 10.3 in the 2005-06 school year, 7.9 in 2006-07 and 3.2 in 2007-08.

Doris Brown of Prince William County heads up Partners for Safe Teen Driving, which offers 90-minute parent seminars in a few dozen localities throughout the state.

Brown said she’s confident there’s a correlation between more parents going to seminars and the reduction in crashes.

“Teen crashes and fatalities were very high in Prince William County, and after three years, they went down incredibly,” Brown said.

Brown said officials from every locality that requires parent seminars before students can get their learner’s permits “will tell you that all of their crash and fatality rates have dropped, and all of them will tell you that it’s because of this program.”

Brown said that school leaders from many localities have expressed interest in conducting parent seminars, but some assume they wouldn’t be able to afford to start a new program during the economic recession.

“If those school divisions took advantage of the opportunity to learn more about the program, they would find that they can implement the program at little to no cost,” Brown said.

Mitchell Minor, driving instructor for Charlottesville High School, said the school division plans to eventually offer parent seminars through Partners for Safe Teen Driving.

“We are planning to hopefully do it [in fall 2010]. If not, definitely by the following fall,” Minor said

It hasn’t been determined whether those seminars would be mandatory for parents in Charlottesville.

As to why CHS isn’t already providing the parent seminars, Minor said: “I don’t know. It just hasn’t been something that’s required, but anything that we can do to help is definitely a plus ... as far as making teens safe.”

Among numerous other things, Wharam teaches parents how to help students drive from the passenger’s seat. He also recommends parents disable new drivers’ ability to use cell phone text messaging.

Texting while driving is illegal for all drivers in Virginia. For those with learner’s permits, as well as anyone 17 years old or younger, it’s also illegal to talk on a cell phone while driving.

“There’s no way in the world my teenager would have text messaging, because literally, they get addicted,” Wharam said. The “average teenager in the United States texts 80 messages a day. That’s 5,000 in two months. They’re addicted to that stupid thing. And if that thing is going to beep or buzz or whatever while they’re driving, they’re going to pick it up and they’re going to crash.”

Ray Gaines, who attended a parent seminar taught by Wharam more than three years ago, said he remembers being taught to have a new driver start in a parking lot, graduate to a subdivision, then a two-way highway and finally an interstate. He said parents are also taught how to safely grab a steering wheel from the passenger’s seat.

For more information about Partners for Safe Teen Driving, visit www.safeteendriving.org.