Saving Lives on the Road Through Research

How often do you wear your seat belt? Do you drive when you are angry? Do you talk on a cell phone in the car? Do you text while you drive?

While analyzing your own answers to those questions is important, if you have a teen driver, their answers are even more critical. Knowing that car crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers in the United States, students at Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley High School have set out to collect student data on driving behaviors and the effectiveness of teen driver safety programs.

GCMS is a National Leader School of Project Ignition, a grant program sponsored by State Farm® and coordinated by the National Youth Leadership Council®, which uses service-learning to help address teen driver safety issues. “We hope that this research will encourage other schools to start teen driver safety programs that are preventative instead of in response to a tragedy,” said Jacob Dickey, a student leader at GCMS.

As a part of Project Ignition, students and teachers at GCMS have been analyzing these issues and coordinating efforts to change behaviors and community norms for seven years. Named a Project Ignition Leader School in 2010, GCMS is now making a more concerted effort to assist other schools in identifying and addressing their students’ most risky driving behaviors.

Students from schools in Illinois that do not yet have a teen driver safety program in place are participating in the online survey, in addition to all 12 Project Ignition National Leader Schools in nine states and Canada. Dickey said, “We will compare Project Ignition schools to other schools to help measure the difference Project Ignition is making.” Results will help determine the effectiveness of Project Ignition and inform the movement nationwide.

The pre-survey phase was completed Feb. 18. GCMS students will tabulate the results and distribute them to all of the schools that participated. Students at the schools without a teen driver safety program will be offered resources and assistance. GCMS has comprehensive resources to offer other schools interested in teen driver safety, including packets and videos, exemplifying Project Ignition’s best practices in improving teen driver safety.

“This research should help guide new and existing teen driver safety program development,” said Judy Weber-Jones, teacher and Project Ignition coordinator at GCMS. The post-survey will be conducted just prior to prom season, giving new students and teachers two months to begin to change driving behaviors and community norms.

“It is going to be really exciting to see the results,” said Weber-Jones. “As a National Leader School, we will be increasingly looking outside of our own school—collaborating with other schools to design a system where eventually Project Ignition will have students, teachers and community members working in each state and in providences of Canada to make our roadways safer through service-learning.”