BREWSTER- Auto mishaps are the leading cause of death among today’s teenagers with six out of ten teen auto crashes resulting from driver inattention.
Parents as Driving Partners, a partnership between the Putnam County Clerk’s Office, Putnam Probation Department, the county’s STOP DWI Program, Sheriff’s Department and the Putnam Traffic Safety Board hopes to reduce those frightening statistics by promoting safe driving habits among the teenage population.
The Putnam County Youth Bureau hosted its annual Parents As Driving Partners conference at Tilly Foster Farm in Brewster, bringing youth and professionals together to discuss ways to make roads safer.
Developed by the Youth Bureau, a booklet containing basic guidelines to assist parents in their role as driving partners has been published that includes a Parent/Teen Driving Agreement.
Youth Bureau Director Janine Cunningham noted the agreement outlines the responsibilities of parents and teens in promoting safe driving.
The pact urges parents to support their child during their driving, teach proper techniques and model safe driving behaviors for them. The agreement also asks teens to obey safety rules and regulations, never drive while impaired, drive only with parental permission and never drive while using a cell phone.
Cunningham said the statistics were terrifying: “Not only are teens unnecessarily dying on our roads due to driver inexperience but 16-year-olds have higher crash rates than drivers of any other age and one third of deaths among 13- to 19-year-olds occur as the result of auto crashes.”
Some two dozen young people from Putnam, Westchester, Dutchess, Orange, and Greene counties attended the conference.
Comments