NOYS: What can we do to make teen drivers safer?

The leading cause of death for teens in the United States is traffic crashes.  According to the Centers for Disease Control, mile for mile, teenagers ages 16-19 are involved in three times as many fatal crashes as all other drivers¹. Summer months are especially dangerous for teens on the road.  Fortunately, most teen motor vehicle crashes are preventable, and proven strategies can improve the safety of young drivers on the road.  National Organizations for Youth Safety^® (NOYS) is fighting back against this epidemic by engaging young people in the solution.

Now is the time to do more, not less, to tackle this public health epidemic that results in more than 3,500 teen lives lost each year.² NOYS is asking that we all renew our commitment to youth traffic safety and help keep our young people safe on our roadways, through the annual campaign held each May that supports youth leadership on this issue, Global Youth Traffic Safety Month™.  NOYS is joining forces with federal agencies, business and industry leaders and national nonprofit organizations, including The Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility through the new IKnowEverything program, in order to work to reduce teen traffic crashes.

The goal of Global Youth Traffic Safety Month is to empower and engage youth to promote traffic safety awareness to their peers at the beginning of the deadliest season for teens on the roads, summer.  This year’s U.S. Global Youth Traffic Safety Month launch will take place in Washington, D.C. on May 8^th and will include a focus on bike safety, teen drivers, and pedestrian safety.  The event is open to the public and the media.  For more information on Global Youth Traffic Safety Month or to become a partner, click here or fill out a partner form. We encourage everyone to:

• Post the Global Youth Traffic Safety Month logo on your websites and social media sites
• Make Some NOYS for Global Youth Traffic Safety Month and use our 31 Tweets for May as your statuses for the month!
• Use the #GYTSM2013 hashtag when posting about Global Youth Traffic Safety Month on Twitter
• Make a concentrated effort to remind customers and employees of the high risk time of summer and ways youth can be safe on the roads
• Use social media and your contacts to remind parents of your states’ current Graduated Driver Licensing Laws

¹Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
² National Highway Traffic Safety Administration