National Teen Driver Safety Week: Keeping our teen drivers safe

Whitby, Ontario – National Teen Driver Safety Week (NTDSW) is taking place across Canada from October 15 to 21.

This week is designed to build public awareness of teen driver safety issues and encourage communities to be a part of the solution.

The Region of Durham is working to create safer roads for all road users, which include drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists through the Durham Vision Zero Strategic Road Safety Action Plan. Durham Vision Zero has identified young driver involved collisions as an emphasis area, indicating inexperience and driving beyond the driver’s skill level as the primary reasons why young drivers have a higher chance of being involved in a collision.

The Region encourages youth drivers and all roadway users to know, respect, and follow the rules of the road to help reduce the number of fatal and injury-causing collisions on our roads. Educating yourself about proper behaviour, adapting to changing conditions, and respecting other road users around you are other actions that you can take to help keep road users safe.

Parachute Canada’s statistics on teen drivers show:

• Road crashes are the third-leading cause of death among young people ages 15 to 24 in Canada.
• Drivers who text while driving are up to six times more likely to be involved in a crash.
• Thirty-five per cent of youth say they have been a passenger in a car driven by someone under the influence of cannabis.
• Alcohol is a factor in almost half of motor vehicle crashes causing death among 16 to 25-year-olds.

Learn more about NTDSW at parachute.ca/NTDSW. Durham Vision Zero is a long-term plan to ensure a safe transportation system that sees no lives lost or serious injuries on Durham’s roadways. Learn more at durham.ca/VisionZero.

Quotes

“Our collision statistics show that approximately one quarter of all fatal and injury-causing collisions involve young drivers, which makes this the age group with the largest number of collisions in Durham. That’s why, through our Durham Vision Zero strategic road safety action plan, we have identified the prevention of young-driver-involved collisions as a priority. We want to see this statistic come down. We’re calling on our young drivers to drive safely, attentively, and responsibly, because teen drivers have the opportunity to save lives on our roadways—including their own.”

– Ramesh Jagannathan, Acting Commissioner of Works, Region of Durham

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For media inquiries, please contact CorporateCommunications@durham.ca.