Ford to offer life-saving driving tips to teens at NRG
A free tune-up in safe driving for newly licensed drivers is headed for Houston.
Ford’s Driving Skills for Life sessions, at NRG Stadium April 22 and 23, pair an instructor with the young driver behind the wheel, where they will focus on hazard recognition, speed management and vehicle handling. For the first time in its 14-year history, the tour will offer virtual reality tools to help new deal properly and safely with traffic circles, pedestrians and bicyclists.
While it’s clearly not smart to use a smartphone while driving, what’s not often discussed is that the dangerous practice is also taking a bite out of all drivers’ wallets.
An “epidemic” of U.S. drivers talking, texting and surfing the Internet while behind the wheel is driving insurers to hike premiums because the costs of repairing or replacing vehicles are soaring, the Wall Street Journal reported this week. Among the sobering findings:
» The average insurance premium in 2016 was $926, a 16 percent increase since 2011.
» More than half — 54 percent — of smartphone owners use the device while driving. » 36 percent of drivers text while driving. It’s been widely reported that traffic deaths rose 7.2 percent in 2015, but the National Safety Council estimates 2016 highway fatalities will increase about 6 percent. In a State Farm survey, 20 percent of the respondents said they used their phones to take photos while behind the wheel.
At Ford’s Driving Skills for Life, participants also will have a chance to don Ford’s Drunk Driving and Drugged Driving suits to see how being impaired can slow movement, reduce coordination, blur vision and make tasks difficult.
Each of the four halfday, hands-on sessions is tailored to 18- to 20-yearold drivers because they are involved in more fatal crashes than younger teens. A report by the Governors Highway Safety Association released in October showed that teenage drivers are 1.6 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than 35- to 40-year-olds.
Working with its partner, the Governors Highway Safety Association, Ford Driving Skills for Life will cover 15 markets in the United States this year. Since its inception, the automaker’s program has provided training at no cost to parents or students to more than a million newly licensed drivers in 35 countries.
Traffic accidents and fatalities in the U.S. involving teen-agers jumped 10 percent in 2016, the first increase since 2006.
“Driving safely is not about downloading the latest app,” said James Graham, global manager of Ford’s Driving Skills for Life. “We look forward to expanding our efforts to help reduce the number of crashes and fatalities through teaching real-world training and improved decision-making skills.
For more information or to register: www.drivingskillsforlife.com.
Those who can’t take part in the program, can check out the curriculum at Ford’s online “academy” at www.drivingskillsforlife.com/academy.