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In-Car Cameras Protect Teenage Drivers, Study Finds
Researchers have found an effective way to curb distracted driving among teenagers: capture video of them behind the wheel.
Small video cameras, roughly the size of a deck of cards, can be attached to the rear-view mirror of a teenage driver’s car, where they monitor activity both inside and outside the car. If the driver gets into a wreck, or suddenly swerves, stops or accelerates, a video clip is sent wirelessly to a Web site where parents can watch it. The footage is only saved when the driver has a “safety event.”
Such cameras can have a powerful influence on the behavior of the worst, most distracted teen drivers, said the lead researcher on a new study, Daniel V. McGehee, director of the Human Factors and Vehicle Safety Research Division at the public policy center of the University of Iowa.
“Teens are notorious for rationalizing their behavior,” Mr. McGehee said. “But they can’t argue with what the video is showing.” (Click here to watch video from a mounted camera.)
Mr. McGehee found that the worst teenage drivers have 88 percent fewer safety events when they have a camera in the car. The teenagers are called out when they, say, take a curve too quickly or text through a stop light, and they also get to see the video themselves.
Already at least one major insurance company provides the technology free to its customers, Mr. McGehee said, and several companies sell the cameras. One such company, DriveCam, offers the camera for $495 and charges $50 for installation. It then costs $30 a month to have the driving data sent to “professional driving analysts” at the company who score teenagers’ performance for parents.
Legislators and safety advocates have said they worry in particular about the dangers of teenage drivers, particularly given their high use of mobile phones. Indeed, Mr. McGehee, who is presenting his findings next week at a conference on injury and violence prevention, said the technology was interesting because teenagers were so susceptible to distractions, like cellphone use behind the wheel. He said that if teenagers could learn safe behavior when they first started driving, it would tend to carry over into later life.
In-Car Cameras Protect Teenage Drivers, Study Finds - NYTimes.com
Researchers have found an effective way to curb distracted driving among teenagers: capture video of them behind the wheel.
Small video cameras, roughly the size of a deck of cards, can be attached to the rear-view mirror of a teenage driver’s car, where they monitor activity both inside and outside the car. If the driver gets into a wreck, or suddenly swerves, stops or accelerates, a video clip is sent wirelessly to a Web site where parents can watch it. The footage is only saved when the driver has a “safety event.”
Such cameras can have a powerful influence on the behavior of the worst, most distracted teen drivers, said the lead researcher on a new study, Daniel V. McGehee, director of the Human Factors and Vehicle Safety Research Division at the public policy center of the University of Iowa.
“Teens are notorious for rationalizing their behavior,” Mr. McGehee said. “But they can’t argue with what the video is showing.” (Click here to watch video from a mounted camera.)
Mr. McGehee found that the worst teenage drivers have 88 percent fewer safety events when they have a camera in the car. The teenagers are called out when they, say, take a curve too quickly or text through a stop light, and they also get to see the video themselves.
Already at least one major insurance company provides the technology free to its customers, Mr. McGehee said, and several companies sell the cameras. One such company, DriveCam, offers the camera for $495 and charges $50 for installation. It then costs $30 a month to have the driving data sent to “professional driving analysts” at the company who score teenagers’ performance for parents.
Legislators and safety advocates have said they worry in particular about the dangers of teenage drivers, particularly given their high use of mobile phones. Indeed, Mr. McGehee, who is presenting his findings next week at a conference on injury and violence prevention, said the technology was interesting because teenagers were so susceptible to distractions, like cellphone use behind the wheel. He said that if teenagers could learn safe behavior when they first started driving, it would tend to carry over into later life.
In-Car Cameras Protect Teenage Drivers, Study Finds - NYTimes.com