Better Teen Driving by a Third? 4-H 'CarTeens' Program Does It

Dec 10, 2010

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Better Teen Driving by a Third? 4-H 'CarTeens' Program Does It

HAMILTON, Ohio -- Can teens be better, safer drivers? Ohio State University Extension’s Jim Jordan thinks they can, knows how and now has the numbers to prove it.

A Butler County 4-H educator, Jordan works with 4-H’s CarTeens program, an intervention program for first-time juvenile traffic offenders. He studied the program for his nearly finished Ohio State University doctoral dissertation.

Teens who complete CarTeens, Jordan’s research shows, see a significant improvement in their driving. Their risky driving behaviors, such as speeding and distracted driving, decline by more than a third.

Jordan said he’s seen the benefits firsthand.

About 10 percent of Butler County’s traffic fatalities each year used to be teens. One year, a third of them were. The figures, Jordan said, “were alarming.”

But since the county started a zero-tolerance policy for teen driving violations -- an automatic citation and, for first-timers, a court mandate to attend CarTeens -- “we’ve reduced that in some years to none,” he said.

OSU Extension developed CarTeens with the Ohio State Highway Patrol and Ohio’s juvenile justice system. 4-H, a part of OSU Extension, operates CarTeens through OSU Extension’s county offices.

CarTeens teachers are teens -- 4-H volunteers who usually have gone through CarTeens themselves. Juvenile-court judges, law-enforcement officials and 4-H educators mentor them.

Jordan said CarTeens participants “sincerely appreciate being taught by their peers and knowing that (their teachers) have been in the same situation.”

Magistrate Steven Buck works with CarTeens through the Muskingum County Juvenile Court.

“By any measure,” Buck said, “CarTeens has been an effective program in Muskingum County: reducing the number of repeat juvenile traffic offenders, helping make parents and guardians aware of their responsibilities for their teen’s driving, and increasing teens’ awareness of responsible driving decisions and the impact those decisions have on others.”

4-H officials said more than 8,400 Ohio teens participated in CarTeens last year.

“For a minimal tax dollar expense in facilitating CarTeens through OSU Extension, we all benefit immeasurably from reduced juvenile traffic accidents, injuries and deaths,” Buck said. “It’s hard to imagine a better use of our tax dollars.”

Writers

Kurt Knebusch
knebusch.1@osu.edu
330-263-3776

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Jim Jordan
jordan.247@osu.edu
513-785-6650

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