An educational video produced by faculty and students at Wichita State University to help parents and teens understand the risks of teen driving and provide parental guidance has been released.

Les Anderson, associate professor of journalism at WSU’s Elliott School of Communication, directed a team of faculty and students at WSU who produced the video and a companion brochure to help parents with teen driving guidelines, supported by the Center for the Study of Young Drivers, University of North Carolina.

“We interviewed parents who lost children in car crashes, teens who survived crashes who could share their experiences with their peers, driver education instructors and members of law enforcement, who could share their first hand experiences with handling teen drivers and crashes,” Anderson said.

Funding for the project was facilitated by AAA Kansas, with funding by the AAA Kansas Traffic Safety Fund, the Kansas Department of Transportation, Kansas Turnpike Authority, the Sunflower Foundation and the Kansas Health Foundation.

The video is being distributed to parent and teen educational contacts in Kansas, such as law enforcement agencies, schools and driver education instructors, said James Hanni, executive vice president of AAA Kansas.

More than 2,400 copies of the videos are being distributed.
During interviews with parents and teens conducted by WSU in 2007, most parents told interviewers they had no materials to assist them. This was more common in rural areas.

For those who had something, the most common source was driver licensing offices, followed by insurance company and driver education schools/instructors, but all of these were uncommon.

The video and companion brochure being provided through driver licensing centers is expected to address this concern.

Copies of the video are available upon request by e-mail to boliva@aaa-alliedgroup.com. Copies of the companion brochure are also at www.aaa.com/teens.