16 Minutes of Your Life

Youth crashes, injuries and deaths continue to be a significant problem despite efforts to address this particularly difficult age group. Teenagers drive less than all except the older population, but their numbers of crashes, injuries and deaths are disproportionately high. Based on severity of crashes, the rate per mile driven among 16-19 year olds is 4 times greater than older drivers. Risk is highest at age 16. In fact, the crash rate per mile driven is twice as high among 16 year olds compared to 18-19 year olds. Youth drivers remain a PennDOT major focus area and must continue to be addressed in order to reduce the fatalities to one death per 100 million vehicle miles traveled.

Buckle Up PA has involved the enforcement community to reach out to Pennsylvania´s Middle and High School students with the “Survival 101” program. For the past 5 years, “Survival 101” has reached this age group with a powerful seat belt enforcement message. During the 2006-2007 school year there were 166 new police officers trained by Buckle Up PA Law Enforcement Liaisons. (LEL´s) A total of 460 programs were completed and 18,178 students were reached statewide. We still, however, need to do more. The following project is a supplement to the “Survival 101” Curriculum.

Buckle Up PA has developed a unique intervention program that focuses on selected high risk behaviors that lead to youth crashes, injuries and deaths. “Sixteen Minutes of Your Life” or “Sixteen Minutes” involves a one on one or a small group meeting with a police officer, the month the student turns 16. This police intervention will last for approximately 16 minutes. A discussion will include the following topics; impaired driving, youth inexperience, distractions such as the number of passengers, behind the wheel behavior, aggressive driving, and unbelted occupants. Consequences of sudden decision making will be discussed along with citation costs, fines and loss of license. “Click It or Ticket; Two Tickets, Two Fines" will be explained in full detail.

We believe this more personal and informal approach will benefit not only the student, but the officer as well. By encouraging open discussion, the police can obtain a “wealth” of knowledge from the young driver´s perspective for future programming or enforcement strategies. A program of this nature serves to strengthen the respect and rapport between the student and officer, particularly at this point of the young driver/passenger´s life.

Police officers will be trained by Buckle Up PA Regional LEL´s and will be provided with school contacts, materials and talking points along with a program of visual displays. Buckle Up PA will maintain and report scheduled and completed programs in it´s monthly report. Programs will also be coordinated through Community Traffic Safety Project Coordinators and PennDOT Safety Press Officers.