Teen Driving Safety: Technology, Citations, and Parent Coaching – PediaCast 613
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Show Notes
Description
Handing a teenager the car keys brings pride, freedom, and plenty of worry. Dr Mike talks with injury-prevention researcher Dr Ginger Yang about why new drivers face elevated crash risk, how a traffic citation can become a teachable moment, and what ProjectDRIVE reveals about technology and parent coaching. Discover practical ways families can encourage safer choices… and keep the conversation going after teens earn their driver’s license!
Topic
Teen Driving Safety
Guest
Dr Ginger Yang
Principal Investigator
Center for Injury Research and Policy
Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Links
The Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Teen Driving — Center for Injury Research and Policy
Leveraging traffic citations as teachable moments: parent perspectives on a post-citation
Teach Your Teen to Drive – Ohio Traffic Safety Office
RoadReady Ohio Safe Driving App
Episode Transcript
[Dr Mike Patrick]
This Episode of PediaCast is brought to you by the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
[MUSIC]
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of PediaCast. We are a pediatric podcast for moms and dads.
This is Dr. Mike coming to you from the campus of Nationwide Children’s Hospital. We’re in Columbus, Ohio. It’s episode 613.
We’re calling this one Teen Driving Safety, Technology, Tickets, and Parent Coaching. I want to welcome all of you to the program. We are so happy to have you with us.
You know, handing a teenager the car keys brings pride and freedom, but also plenty of worry. Teen drivers face their greatest crash risk during the first months of independent driving. Today, we explore why that risk is so high and how technology, traffic citations, and continued parent coaching can help teenagers develop safer habits behind the wheel.
Of course, in our usual PediaCast fashion, we have a terrific guest joining us in the studio to discuss the topic. Dr. Ginger Yang is here. She is a principal investigator with the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Before we get to her, I do want to remind you the information presented in every episode of our podcast is for general educational purposes only. We do not diagnose medical conditions or formulate treatment plans for specific individuals. If you’re concerned about your child’s health, be sure to call your health care provider.
Also, your use of this audio program is subject to the PediaCast Terms of Use Agreement, which you can find at pediacast.org. So, let’s take a quick break. We’ll get Dr. Ginger Yang settled into the studio, and then we will be back to talk about teen driving safety. It’s coming up right after this.
[MUSIC]
[Dr Mike Patrick]
She studies the risks, she tests the tools, and she helps families turn driving data into safer decisions. Dr. Ginger Yang is a principal investigator with the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Before we dive into teen driving safety, let’s offer a warm PediaCast welcome to our guest. Dr. Ginger Yang, welcome to PediaCast.
[Dr Ginger Yang]
Thank you for the opportunity.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
We are really excited to talk to you today because teen driving safety remains a concern for families, and it’s really a public health concern. Can you tell us why after all of these years is teen driving safety still an issue?
[Dr Ginger Yang]
Oh, good question. So, the teens, when they’re learning to drive, because they are still in the age that is development, and this is also a unique issue for the United States because other country does not allow driving until they are 18 or until they are 21. But in United States, that is unique.
Some states allow teens start learning to driving even they are 14 and a half. In Ohio, the teens start learning to drive 15 and a half. They are still, their brain’s still in development, and they are also inexperienced.
They think the risk will not occur to them. So, this is why they have high risk.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah, yeah. You know, a lot of teenagers also play video games. And so, from a parent standpoint, you may think, oh, gosh, their reaction timing and reflexes, and they do so well at these video games that that’s going to transfer over to driving.
But that’s not necessarily the case, right? I mean, they’re still at risk when you’re first learning to drive, when you first get your driver’s license. And that really at any age, that’s going to be the case because you just need practice at something to be good at it and understand what the dangers are and the risks.
[Dr Ginger Yang]
You are correct, because evidence is showing not only the teen drivers, but they are also at high risk when they start learning to drive. All ages, anyone start learning to drive in that first six months or first year has always put them at the risk because the driving skill do need practice and you encountered a different situation, need to make a decision so quickly. So do need to practice until your skill more developed and become mature.
And the teen, of course, particular risk is because their decision-making skill also not fully developed.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. And so that’s a really good point. Their brain is still developing.
What are some of the unique characteristics of the teenage brain and teenage behaviors that contribute to crashes when folks are learning to drive?
[Dr Ginger Yang]
Probably the most behavior is the most common behavior that contributes to the crash, and the crash-related fatality is the teen like to do the text while they are driving or call on, they are driving. And sometimes this distraction is not only using the phone, but also when they have more passenger in the car and they want to show off and all this can put them on the risk. And also, the alcohol associated with when drinking the alcohol, them driving, that could have also put them in dangerous.
And most is they sometimes did not anticipate that hazard could be on the road because they are inexperienced. Probably two factors, inexperience and also risk of driving or the bigger one is speeding. Sometimes they forgot how fast they go and that could also lead to the risk.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. When we think about driving skills, there’s those physical skills and what to sort of watch out for.
Sometimes we call it being a defensive driver. Those are all important. But those other things that you mentioned like peer pressure and alcohol and wanting to show off, those things are a little bit more difficult to quantify.
But they are something that parents can really make a difference in terms of letting their kids know that these are serious things, that they can seriously hurt themselves and seriously hurt other people by not paying attention to the rules of the road and not only the actual rules, but also just paying attention and not giving in to peer pressure. What are some ways that parents can really influence their kids to do the right thing when they’re driving?
[Dr Ginger Yang]
Parents definitely play a significant role to help their teen to be a safer driver. So, when teens start learning to drive, parents need to supervise their teen and teach their teen the safe skills, not only talk to them, but also show them how to do and practice with them until they really learn about the safe driving. And most important, when the teen gets the drive license, parents should not just say, okay, you’re on your own.
They should also continue to engage because the teen is still developing their driving skills. So, the parents need not only because they are not in the car, but to still remind them the importance of defensive driving and also importance, don’t engage the risk driving behaviors. For example, don’t have too many passengers in their car, wear the seatbelt always, wear the seatbelt, and also don’t use texting or on the phone when they are driving.
So of course, parents also need to use the strategy, effectively communicate those with their teen, set the rules, and also tell them not to come back too late in the evening because that night driving is high risk.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah, yeah. These are such important points. And it’s not just a one-time conversation where you sit down and like, okay, here’s the rules and now here are the keys.
This is something that really, even before they’re to the age when they’re driving, you know, if you’re just in the car having a conversation and you notice other people on the road, that’s a good time to start talking about these things and to mention those rules, you know, like using your seatbelts and, you know, not being distracted and texting while you’re driving or talking on the phone while you’re driving.
These are all things to talk about more than once, right? It’s got to be that broken record over and over again.
[Dr Ginger Yang]
Yeah, correct. Not only just once, but also reinforce every time when in the situation, use that teachable moment. So, in that way, teen can learn because the teen, also their brain still in development, they probably know that is not right, but they need to keep reminding that is don’t do this because sometimes they just forgot.
So that is very important that parent engagement need to be continued, ongoing, instead of just one time.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
I love that you said teachable moment. One teachable moment for many teen drivers is actually receiving a traffic citation. So, tell us about Project Drive, which is a research project that is near and dear to your heart.
And I know that you really focused on teenagers who had received a traffic citation. So why did you choose that teachable moment? And tell us a little bit more about Project Drive and what you’re looking to do.
[Dr Ginger Yang]
Sure. The Project Drive is the project that focuses on teens who receive citations. So basically, this is the NIH-funded project.
It is a randomized trial. Basically, our research question trying to ask the question is whether the technology can help the teen driver or whether the technology combined the parent’s engagement can make more difference. So, first is this population, the teen who are 16 and 17 who received citation because when they start learning to driving, they make a mistake.
So, all the research is showing if the teen has received a citation or anyone received a citation, more likely to lead to the future citation or increase the risk of a crash and the crash-related death. Because this citation can be maybe the technique they did not learn, did not master well, or because their willingness to take a risk. So, it is important to when they have this citation, we should use that as a teach, not just a simple punishment, rather use this as a teachable moment.
So, in that way, they can do better in the future to avoid future citation and also most important to engage, prevent the future crash. So, this is why we conducted this study. We put the device, usually that is insurance, we’ll put the device in the car, in all participants of the car.
Then we have one group, they just have a device, we call the control, they collect the data. Then we have one group that received the beep because we felt these are the teen drivers who already drive independently. Parents no longer sit in their car.
So having this device almost like a virtual parents in their car, when they are speeding or when they’re too hot, that device will beep. Then the third group is not only teen receive feedback, but we also have parents see their driving and we also train parents how to use effective communication to talk about their driving.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah, so really interesting. So, you’re taking kids who have citations, so we know their training failed them for at least that one time. But because that happened, we’re saying they’re at higher risk of receiving another citation or being involved in a crash or being injured or even death in a car crash because of that first citation, we know that they’re now at a higher risk.
So those kids then get kind of split into two groups, and your control group just has this device that’s monitoring their driving, but nothing gets done with it. There’s no sound if they speed or maybe brake too quickly or whatever the reasons for it to beep would be. And then the experimental group actually does get that feedback.
And then do both groups, the parents get to see what the data looks like?
[Dr Ginger Yang]
Yeah, we actually have three groups, randomized to the three groups. One is control group; they don’t have any feedback. Two is experiment group.
So, one group, the teen receives feedback, parents don’t see anything. But another experimental group will have not only the feedback given the teen, but the parents also see their teens driving, parents also receive training. So, in that way, we are able to say, okay, device-only group compare the control group, if there is any difference, then we can also answer the question, how about to combine the device and the parents’ communication with that even better, compare the device-only and compare the control group.
So, we have three groups to see, we hypothesize device-only maybe make the difference, then also technology plus the parents’ engagement even make a bigger difference because previous research is showing parent engagement to make a difference. So, we want to see if this virtual parents also can help. So, in that way, we divided them, randomized them to the three groups.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
And then the outcome that you’re looking for. So, when you say they did better, and hopefully you hypothesize that the feedback from the device and the feedback from the parents is going to help the most. But when we’re talking about that help, what is the outcome that we’re looking at?
[Dr Ginger Yang]
So, the outcome for the, we have an outcome for the focus is on the teen driving. That is the outcome. So, we look at their overall risk driving behavior.
We are not just asking them, but we have recorded their trips over the six month. And the first three months is the active intervention. Then another three months is the follow-up without to give them feedback to see if the behavior is sustained.
So, the outcome for the one we just published now is looking the overall risk driving behavior that including the speeding that is exceeded 10 miles in the post-speeding or the driving over 75 miles, regardless of where they are. And another part of outcome is a kinematic event that is heartbreaking and sudden acceleration and turn too hard. So, we basically, that is based on the G-force to determine those events.
That means their vehicle control is not smooth. So, we have all this event divided their miles driven, because if they’re driving more, of course, they have a more event. If they’re driving less, probably less.
So, we look at the rate per thousand miles driven to see how the three groups are different.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
And then what did you find in terms of those risky behaviors going away amongst those three groups?
[Dr Ginger Yang]
Yeah, so that the findings show the combined technology with the parents in overall, I can give the detail in the number but overall combined the technology with the parents training that is significant in the overall driving outcome compared the control group. Technology alone can make some difference, but not overall, only make the difference when they’re speeding duration. So basically, the technology does not prevent the event to occur, but to reduce the severity.
So, we have a one outcome, the looking not only your speeding, but how many miles you are speeding, because when it’s the beep, the team have to stop their behavior until the beep is stopped. So, we find that it’s very interesting that the technology does not prevent team speeding, but when the team speeding that beep up, the team reduce the distance they are speeding. That means that make the difference is only when they are speeding, they hear the noise, then they stop the driving.
But when we combine the parents and also the technology together, we prevent the speeding, we also reduce the speeding duration.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah, very, very important, not only to stop that risky behavior when they hear the beep, but then also the more times that they’re hearing the beep overall, hopefully they’ll start to self-regulate themselves and not have as many beeps as they move forward.
[Dr Ginger Yang]
So basically, the big takeaway message is technology helped, but technology combined with engaged parent worked even better. So, in the teens who received driving feedback, plus parent training group had about 32% fewer risk driving events compared to the teens in the control group. They also had a 46% lower proportion of miles driven while speeding.
The technology alone group had more limited effect. Teens who receive feedback without parent component did not have a significant reduction in overall risk driving event. Although they did have about a 36% lower proportion of miles driven while speeding compared to control.
So basically, a device tells the teen you are driving unsafe, so you should stop speeding, but it does not prevent them the speeding at first place.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
One indicator that’s more difficult is does it decrease the number of accidents and decrease the number of injuries? But when you’re successful and you stop those behaviors, you’re not going to have as many crashes to get the numbers, right?
[Dr Ginger Yang]
You’re correct, because crash take a long time to observe. So, we also, since the evidence already show if you have a citation linked to the risk of a crash, so we did not assess the crash. However, we assess the recurrent citation.
So, we’re still working on that outcome. One of the outcome of this study is with the teen in the intervention group reduced their recurrent citation. So maybe in the future, we can come to tell you about our findings.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah, yeah. The other thing that I love is that you have some objective data that the parents are looking at. So, it’s not just like the parent like, oh, you’re going too fast.
And then, you know, the teen driver takes their foot off the accelerator and then looks at the speedometer and like, no, I’m going the right speed. But it’s hard to argue with the data from a device, right?
[Dr Ginger Yang]
Yeah, that is correct, because before we conducted this study, we asked parents and the teen about this device. So, they definitely, teens do not want a camera in their car. So, this device only recording they are driving without taking the video while they are driving.
And the teen like the device because they feel give the objective data if they do good behavior, that also showing. The parents also like because in that way, they can tell the teens what they did good because part of our training, we want to parents not only just, hey, you have the speeding event, look, you have a speeding event, what you do, we want to parents use motivational interview principle to tell the teen just to say, hey, I noticed that we also give the report to the parents and teen, we want to parents to say, hey, I noticed the report showing quite a bit of speeding behavior in the last week, what happened to you? So, we wanted this conversation going instead of just to say, you have so many speeding, I’m going to take your keys. So, in that way, parents can have a conversation with their teen about driving.
And also, we want to parents tell teen if they did a good job, not just say they have event, but if they did a good job, they should appraise they are safe driving.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah, the communication piece of it is so important. And parents, some folks have naturally good communication skills, others really need to work on their communication skills. And because that can affect your outcomes, if a parent is very judgmental and sort of attacking, then it’s more likely that their child is going to become defensive.
And then, you know, that learning opportunity is sort of missed, which then impacts your data for the outcome. So, you really had all your parents go through communications training, right?
[Dr Ginger Yang]
Yes, that is correct. Because the bigger part is a parent to communication training. We’re not to say you need to change everything you talk to the teen.
It is hard. But we want to parents use more open-ended question, and also reflection, nonjudgmental, and also need to affirm when they communicate the rule setting, right? So, in that way, teen receive the message.
Because we find that our previous research show that even parents talk to their teen, if their teen did not hear what parents say, will not make a difference. So, we want parents not only talk to their teen, but also use the style, the way that make their teen heard about what they say. So, we have all the parents receive training.
We did the virtual, the session. So, they meet with the communication specialist about how you communicate with their teen about safe driving. So, we have them meet with them.
We also have parents recording their conversation with their teen so that when they receive a training in the booth session, the trainer can analyze their conversation, say, maybe you change the way here and change the way there. And in our material in the intervention, we not only have them receive the virtual training, but we also provide a website with the different lessons and with the conversation start on the different, the driving topics. And we show the text that is a typical conversation that is the motivational interviewing conversation.
We also put the voice over. We have someone say, this is the way typical say, and this is the motivational way to say it. So that is the parents can hear.
So, the key to our training is not the content, not only the content, but the most important, the way how you talk.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Yeah. So, so very important.
But before I move on, because I want to talk about how families can put this into practice now, even though the study is ongoing, because it seems like something that would be very beneficial to keeping teen drivers safe. But really quick, I want to point out that the device is not able to detect distracted driving, right? So, this is something that you still really need to let your kids know, hey, no texting, don’t get on your phone, don’t look at gas prices.
You know, you are just the phone stays in your pocket is really the best place because then you’re not even tempted to look at the screen.
[Dr Ginger Yang]
You’re correct. The limitation of our device is we are not able to detect the destructive driving because at the time we started this study is the device can actually detect it based on all the messages, the based on information, the data is based on vehicle movement. It is an OBD device.
It is vehicle movement. Now technology is much better. Now we have an app to put on the phone.
So, in that way, we can detect the destructive driving. So, we are having the new project right now is using the app. And in the future, right now we actually can detect their phone usage because at the time we have the study and the company have to get the phone company say yes to be able to connect the phone.
So, all the connected, the vehicle, the app is not related to the phone, whatever the telecom company to provide the phone. But now we have the device we can base on the app. So, we based on the phone’s message can see whether they have the destructive driving.
So that was a big limitation of the study. Yeah.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
But you’ve, you’ve found a way to overcome that limitation, hopefully. So, I think, you know, a lot of families out there now, like I want, I want this, you know, I want to be able to have some communication training and to have this device. And it just seems like such a great thing to keep my kids safe.
Is there any way to get involved with this? Or is it, is it a service that folks can sign up for? Or is it, you know, are there other commercial services available that do similar things for parents who would like some help like this?
[Dr Ginger Yang]
Because we are in the, we are doing the research, so we are limited. But there are many apps that is able to parents actually commercially available. They can be like 360, live 360.
So, they can see how their teen driving, they actually can access the app. But for the parent communication piece, we are hoping, we are hoping that we can disseminate this to wide juvenile traffic court because so in that way, parents can get the message so they can utilize this message to help their teen.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah, yeah. So very important. We will put links in the show notes over at PediaCast.org for this episode 613. You can find the show notes again at PediaCast.org and we’ll have links to some of these tools, these apps that you’re talking about. We’ll also have a link to teen driving at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s. Lots of resources on that page.
So definitely check that out. We’ll also have more information about Project Drive and then a couple of journal articles if you’re looking to dig a little bit deeper into the science. In-Vehicle Feedback with or without Parent Communication Training and Teenage Driving Behaviors, a randomized clinical trial.
That was your study that was published in JAMA Open. And then another one, Leveraging Traffic Citations as Teachable Moments, Parent Perspectives on a Post-Citation Teen Driving Intervention. And that was published in Frontiers in Public Health.
So, folks can find your work and check out those articles. And we’ll again have links in the show notes over at PediaCast.org. So once again, Dr. Ginger Yang, Principal Investigator with the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Thank you much for stopping by and chatting with us today.
[Dr Ginger Yang]
Thank you for the opportunity.
[MUSIC]
[Dr Mike Patrick]
We are back with just enough time to say thanks once again to all of you for taking time out of your day and making PediaCast a part of it. We really do appreciate your support. Also, thanks again to our guest this week, Dr. Ginger Yang, Principal Investigator with the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Don’t forget, you can find us wherever podcasts are found. There might be an easier way for you to subscribe and listen. We are in the Apple Podcast app, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Audible, YouTube, and most other podcast apps for iOS and Android.
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And until next time, this is Dr. Mike saying stay safe, stay healthy, and stay involved with your kids. So long, everybody.
[MUSIC]
