Having read a recent request, from Elwood resident Susan Katz, for community organization and individual support for a grant application to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration by Safe Kids Suffolk, I wanted to look further into the issue of parent involvement in teen driver safety.
Susan is a registered nurse at Stony Brook University Hospital and an active leader in Safe Kids Suffolk, which is part of Safe Kids USA. The organization focuses upon injury prevention among children, of all ages, and Susan has been a strong advocate for this for at least as long as I have known her.
On behalf of the board of directors of our local civic association, I was pleased to join other community organizations in supporting their grant application, which would be used "to build a program that focuses on parental enforcement of house driving rules for teen drivers." The request letter from Safe Kids Suffolk also noted that "parental involvement is at a peak at licensure, but declines rapidly through the first 12 months of teen driving."
Having read their request, and being enlightened a bit about these risks and possible steps to reduce these risks, I did a bit more research and found an interesting article which was recently in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel discussing a new thirty second ad campaign which seems quite powerful.
The story was titled "Teen drivers: Ad campaign targets risky road behavior," and it noted that traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for 15- to 19-year-olds in U.S. That is a frightening statistic for any parent, so you have to wonder what you can do to help.
Safe Kids Suffolk is trying to be a partner with you, and you can E-mail them at suffolksafekids@yahoo.com to get further information about this, or other programs designed to reduce injuries for all of our children.
About Me
- Jerry Hannon
- After a thirty year career at Chase, serving as a Managing Director and Global Relationship Manager, I took early retirement in the summer of 2000, and that enabled me to become active in community, school district, and town activities. Since 2004, I have been a member of the Elwood School District's Citizens Finance/Budget Advisory Committee, and since 2005 I have been a member of its Audit Committee, and serve on three other committees of the district. During the 2006/07 school year I was President of the Elwood PTA Council, and I remain active in PTA activities. In the community I serve as EVP for Community Affairs of the Old Chester Hills Civic Association, and served the Town of Huntington as a member of its Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee. For thirty five years, I have been a Director of the NY Council of the Navy League, and currently am Chair of its Audit Committee. A Vietnam Veteran, I retired as a Commander in the US Navy Reserve, and previously commanded two Naval Security Group reserve units.