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This week is Teen Safe Driving Awareness week in Connecticut

We’ve written before about the importance of teen driver education in Connecticut, and since this week is our state’s Teen Safe Driving Awareness week, now is the perfect time to remind parents and teenagers about the importance of road safety.

Connecticut instituted new driving laws for teenagers in 2008, and since then, advocates in groups like !MPACT have tried to spread the word about safety to teen drivers throughout the state. The group, which was founded by three mothers who lost teenage sons in auto accidents in 2002, has developed a program to warn young people about the potentially devastating consequences of negligent and reckless driving.

Governor Daniel P. Malloy recently spoke in praise of !MPACT, pointing out that in the United States, more teenage deaths result from auto accidents than from any other cause. While in recent years the state has passed legislation to help reduce the number of crashes caused by distracted or reckless driving, Gov. Malloy said that to address the root of the problem, teenagers need to be aware of the possible effects of dangerous driving.

As a whole, the state has made progress. In the 11 years since the founders of !MPACT lost their sons, the number of annual auto-accident deaths among 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds has gone down 81 percent. Tireless work from safety advocates was largely credited with that reduction.

To teach teenagers about driving safety, !MPACT’s program provides statistics and other information aimed at making clear the real risks of dangerous driving.

For more on what parents can do to educate their children about road safety, please see our previous post, “Teen driver (and passenger) education a must in Connecticut.”

Source: Stamford Plus, “State’s Own Teen Safe Driving Awareness Week Marks 10th Anniversary on Sunday,” Nov. 30, 2013

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