Allstate helps promote safe teen driving

Two Allstate Insurance agents are personally steering a message of safe teenage driving habits as they team up with the Yuma Education Consortium to sponsor bus advertisements to raise awareness of driver education.

Blake Doten and Randal McClure, exclusive Allstate Agency owners, are among the nine agents statewide who have opted into the safe driving campaign.

Doten said they each chose the bus routes where their ads will appear. McClure selected buses bound for Gwyneth Ham Elementary School, while Doten's ads appear on buses going to Cibola High School.

"There's an epidemic of teen fatalities in car accidents. Parents and teens believe that alcohol is the primary cause of crashes involving teens," Doten said. "But we found, according to the National Highway Institute, the main cause is actually driver error."

She pointed to studies that reveal how 16-year-old drivers have crash rates two times greater than 18- to 19-year-old drivers, and nearly seven times greater than drivers 30 to 59 years old.

Doten purchased four ads and McClure five at a cost of $700 per ad, said Stephanie Sheppard, regional corporate relations director. The two have invested $1,400 in the campaign, while Allstate's regional marketing funded the balance. Sixty percent of the advertising is returned to the Yuma Education Consortium, Sheppard noted.

Toni Badone, Yuma Union High School District superintendent, said that with all the cuts from state aid to education over the past year, this revenue becomes very important. She added this support is especially appreciated in light of the fact Arizona is one of the last ranked states in the country when it comes to per-pupil funding.

Yuma Education Consortium has been selling transit ads several years but the income varies. Last year during the downturn, they earned just $7,000 yet two years ago they made $27,500. And thanks to a new law, HB 2011, districts can profit from ads at athletic facilities and their Web page, Badone added.

Parents must begin to discuss safe driving habits at an early age and frequently remind them of its importance before, during and after their teen's licensing process, Doten said.

Parents can set an example, she added. Nobody should drive while talking on a cell phone or texting. They should should not drive operating a radio, an MP3 player or other electronic devices because it sends a wrong message to teenage drivers, she said.

"Talking on a cell while driving makes you as impaired as drivers with blood-alcohol levels of .08 percent. That's defined as drunken driving in most states," Doten said. "So talking to your teen and being a good role model is most important."

According to a survey conducted by the Allstate Foundation, while parents are aware that traffic accidents are the No. 1 killer of children 13 to 19, they frequently delay talking to them about safe driving until less than a year before they get their license permit.

The survey further disclosed parents place much more emphasis in talking about other risky behavior with children 12 or younger, as figures show: 77 percent discuss dangers of smoking, 72 percent discuss drugs, 51 percent discuss underage drinking, yet only 27 percent discuss safe driving.

Allstate also has a parent/teen contract at its Web page: www.allstate.com/teen. It outlines the parent's role in helping teenage motorists succeed at becoming safe drivers and other topics such as speeding, driver error, defensive driving, seat belts, dangers of over-occupancy and other distractions while driving.

"I myself was a statistic," Doten recalled. "I totaled my car when I was 17, just six months after getting my license because I was an inexperienced driver. We're very open with our own child about the risks. And we take this campaign very seriously."