BMC’s Regional Highway Safety Campaign complements this state-wide effort to reduce vehicle crashes, save lives and reduce severe injuries by focusing efforts on distracted driving by teen drivers.

It is estimated that 3 million crashes occur annually as a result of distracted drivers (AAA). In the Baltimore region, distracted driving accounted for over 500 fatalities and 95,000 injuries during the 10-year period between 1997 and 2006.

BMC’s Regional Highway Safety Campaign is a public education effort to raise awareness about the dangers of distracted driving to reduce crashes, deaths and severe injuries. This campaign will focus education efforts on teen drivers and their parents because young drivers are the most at risk when driving with distractions.

Distracted driving is multi-tasking when driving. Common distractions such as tuning the radio, carrying passengers and eating and drinking are now joined by a host of new diversions such as cell phones, text messaging, mp3 players and GPS.

For teens who have not yet mastered driving, distractions create an additional level of risk. Imperfectly learned vehicle control skills, inexperience with anticipating and identifying hazards, and an increased willingness to take risks all contribute to the high crash rate of teen drivers.

A car traveling at 60 mph goes 88 feet in one second. If a driver is distracted for four seconds, the car will travel the length of a football field.

The Regional Highway Safety Campaign launched on June 11th, 2008, with messaging directed at educating parents of teens on the steps they can take to influence their young driver’s driving habits. BMC encourages parents to set and enforce driving rules for their teen drivers, such as no cell phone use, no peer passengers, and a curfew. Parents are also urged to set a good example of safe driving.

Because teens learn how to drive, in part, by watching their parents behind the wheel, parents have the opportunity to positively influence teen driving by avoiding actions that contribute to their own distracted driving.

About the Baltimore Metropolitan Council

The Baltimore Metropolitan Council is the organization of the Baltimore region’s elected executives, which serves as a forum for identifying regional interests and developing collaborative strategies, plans and programs to improve the quality of life and economic vitality throughout the region. In addition, BMC provides technical and staff support to the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board, the federally-designated metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the Baltimore region.  More about BMC...