STOPPED Initiative Contributes To Decrease In Teen Crashes

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2011 that more than two thousand teens were killed in car crashes.

Jason Redoutey is the president of Mr. R’s driving school.

“The best thing you can do for you’re your world is drive safe,” says Redoutey.

He’s especially concerned with distracted driving.

Redoutey says, “put your phone on a mode where you don’t know you’re being contacted. So that stimulant is never introduced in the first place.”

According to News Today texting while driving is the leading cause of death for teens. When it comes to teen drivers, Redoutey says parents are their biggest influence.

” If you are always in a hurry always frustrated. Always talking junk to the other drivers on the road when they mess up your kids catch that,” says Redoutey.

He says its important parents take their children through difficult driving scenarios. For example during football games.

“Pedestrians everywhere everyone’s drunk their cars parked there’s wall to traffic because guess what they’re going to have to navigate that by themselves at some point,” says Redoutey.

To help lower teen traffic incidents, parents have been working with the Michigan Sheriffs Association on a program called “STOPPED” which stands for sheriffs telling our parents and promoting educated drivers.

Ingham County Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth says, “It’s a voluntary program where the parent will fill out a card like this and mail it to the sheriffs association or they can go online and register.”

You place the sticker on the windshield of the car and it then gives police the right to stop the car for any reason they feel necessary.

” Who’s in the car why are they in the car, why they’re where they are,” says Wriggelswroth.

The police fill out a card, send it to the sheriffs association, and they then notify the parents.

For example.

Wriggelsworth says,” your youngster got stopped at 2 o’clock in the morning in Stockbridge.”

The STOPPED program is growing across the state and officials say it has decreased teen crashes by 33 percent.

” More and more counties were doing it “its pretty widely used where you know and kids know if you get pulled over your parents will find out”, says Redoutey.

STOPPED is an incentive for underage drivers to make smarter decisions behind the wheel. More than 40 thousands drivers are registered in STOPPED.

If interested in signing your teen up visit mi-sheriff dot org for more information.

 

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