Steering teen drivers to the straight and narrow
WELLESLEY - When Austin Smith drives his Mercedes wagon, he knows that he's being watched. If he speeds, tailgates, or drives recklessly, drivers can alert his parents by dialing a toll-free number on his bumper sticker that reads "HOW'S MY TEEN DRIVING?"
If someone calls, an operator in Atlanta takes the complaint and generates a report for his parents via e-mail.
"I never drove too crazily," says the 17-year-old senior, who totaled his previous car after crashing into a stone wall. "But it definitely makes you think twice about doing things."
Smith can thank his mother for that. Deborah Smith and friend Anne London recently launched "Steer Straight," a teen driver sticker safety program modeled after those in the trucking industry. Their goal: Hold teen drivers accountable for their driving by arming the public with a contact number to report bad and good driving.
The idea is "to turn good teens into great drivers," a mantra the women often repeat.
"It's not just two moms running around with bumper stickers," says London, a Wellesley mother of three and an adjunct professor of marketing at Bentley College. "We are trying to take a business model and bring it to a new audience and help teens with their driving."
Smith and London, friends since they worked for the sales department at WFXT-TV (Channel 25), were driven to start their bumper-sticker project when Smith's husband, also named Austin, became irate after a teen driver cut him off last October near Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. He wished he had a way to call the parents and complain.
But the mothers were also motivated by teen driving statistics. Car accidents are the number one killer of 15- to 20-year-olds nationwide, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that teen drivers are four times more likely than older drivers to crash. Last year in Massachusetts, 22 people ages 16 and 17 were involved in fatal car crashes; 12 of them were behind the wheel.
"The sticker makes them think twice before doing something," says Deborah Smith, a stay-at-home mother. She and London invested their own money (they wouldn't say how much) to launch the program. They have contracted with DriverCheck, a Georgia-based call center where 300 employees handle calls from across the country on risky commercial drivers, to take reports about teen drivers.
The program works like this: If someone calls to report a driver, a call-center representative asks whether the motorist was using a cellphone, whether passengers were in the car, and what the weather conditions were. Within 15 minutes, a report is e-mailed to the parent. To help weed out prank reports, the calls are recorded.
The membership, which starts at $99 a year, provides two bumper stickers and access to the "Steer Straight" website, which offers driver-safety courses in English and Spanish. Because the program is new and being spread through word of mouth, only about a dozen parents have signed up so far.
"Their parent could find out if they are driving too fast or if they are texting or using their cellphone. It comes with peace of mind for the parent," says Smith, whose son recently got his driver's license, a milestone that has made her more aware of - and nervous about - new drivers on the road. "I never realized how scary it was until my son got his permit and his license. It really is nerve-wracking."
The bumper-sticker campaign is not a new concept. For years, "How's My Driving" decals have decorated the rears of semi trucks so that business owners could track how their drivers behave on the road. In 2000, Gary Direnfeld, a father in Toronto, started his own teen bumper-sticker initiative called the "I Promise Program" when his son became of driving age.
Like that program, "Steer Straight" targets teens through their parents. Each sticker carries a unique identification number so that road rangers can call out the messy motorists or the good drivers. Since the launch in July, about 90 percent of the reports have been critical of the drivers; 10 percent have praised them.
Leann Tobin of Weston, Conn., signed up for the program to keep tabs on her 19-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter.
"We have not received any notices. I guess that's a good thing. I think they feel that they are being watched a little bit," says Tobin. "It reminded me of when I was growing up. We always knew that the other moms and dads were always watching. There was always a good feeling about that."
Her daughter Emma says she doesn't mind having the sticker on her 1990
"I'm still a new driver," she says. "It helps me maintain my speed. It helps both of us."
Johnny Diaz can be reached at jodiaz@globe.com 