A program coming to Chillicothe next week aims to reduce new driver crashes by increasing parental awareness and enforcement of Missouri’s GDL law.
Deana Dothage is Health Educator for the University of Missouri School of Medicine’s Dept. of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the director of First Impact.
Dothage said First Impact is a parent education program for parents of teen drivers who are at the pre-permit, permit, new or independent driver level.
“What we are teaching parents is about Missouri’s Graduated Drivers License (GDL) law and that comes with some rules and restrictions at three different levels of driving,” Dothage said. “We also talk to parents about strategies that they can work with their teens to overcome the risks that teen drivers face. As an example – drowsy driving, speeding, impaired driving, distracted driving – we go into some detail about each of those risks and how parents can monitor and enforce those rules with their teen drivers.”
Dothage said teens ages 15 to 19 have the highest crash risk of any age group on the road.
“Teens are three times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash. Risk is highest in the first 30 to 90 days of independent driving, so we believe by educating parents about this law, research shows it reduces teen fatalities 20 to 40 percent and that is definitely our goal is to reduce fatalities and injuries with teen-involved crashes.”
The First Impact program coming to Chillicothe next week will be a 90-minute program featuring a short video and Dothage, along with Chief Deputy Michael Claypole with the Livingston County Sheriff’s Department, will be speaking.
Dothage said teen drivers are welcome to attend the program with their parents or guardians.
“We love the teen drivers to come, because what we find is when they’re hearing this information from just their parents, they may not absorb it as well as when they’re hearing it from two other professional safety speakers,” Dothage said.
The First Impact program will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 30, at Chillicothe High School in the Performing Arts Center.
For more information, or to register for the free program, go to firstimpact.missouri.edu.