Illinois Department of Transportation Summer 2009 Traffic ... - Caution

TEEN DRIVINGDTS created 100 PROM packages for Illinoishigh schools on a first come, first serve basis.The packages contained pre-prom remindersto students that they should have fun at PROM,but “Please Return On Monday.” The packagesincluded: 25 t-shirts for teachers to wear on the lastschool day before prom, 100 lanyards, 100 pensand 100 key chains all with the PROM messageon them for the students as well as 200 copies of afact sheet with information and statistics regardingteen driving issues.Each year in the United States, more than 8,000teens lose their lives in traffic crashes. The majorreason teens are killed or seriously injured intraffic crashes are: lack of safety belt use, speed,distraction, impaired driving and lack of drivingexperience. In 2007, there were 155 teen fatalitiesdue to traffic crashes in Illinois. During 2008, therewere 93 teens fatalities due to traffic crashes inIllinois; 62 fewer fatalities than the previous year.Illinois has taken this problem under attack andstarted the Operation Teen Safe Driving (OTSD)program, a “peer to peer teaching program” aswell as instituting one of the toughest GraduatedDriver’s License (GDL) programs in the country.Programs like the GDL and OTSD do make adifference in saving teen lives but this is notenough.Prom is a big event in teens’ lives and too manyteens are killed or seriously injured over promweekend. The Division of Traffic Safety (DTS)has started a new PROM program to assist highschools in their efforts to encourage teens to drivesafely.In order to participate, each school was requiredto download an application form (TS 514) from theIDOT website and fax or mail it to DTS. The first100 schools that applied were accepted into theprogram. Because of the huge response we arehoping to increase our PROM budget for 2010.Schools were also required to complete formTS515 reporting on how PROM materials wereused.In a future edition of CAUTION! Magazine, we willupdate you on how schools utilized the PROMmaterials and if it made a difference. Based onhow many schools wanted more t-shirts, lanyards,etc. this year, it certainly shows promise.Information on PROM can be found on our websiteat:www.teensafedrivingillinois.org/prom/index.asp .Information on OTSD can be found on our websiteat:www.teensafedrivingillinois.org .By John Werthwein, PROM Coordinator with assistance fromMarianne Hankins, OTSD Program CoordinatorAt an Operation Teen Safe Driving pressconference in 2008, Illinois Secretary of StateJesse White asked a group of teenagers if theyknew what PROM stood for, but none had a goodanswer. Secretary White explained it stood for“Please Return On Monday” and thus the idea forthe DTS PROM program was born!6 CAUTION!-Summer 2009