Drop the phone, slow it down, & sober up: Traffic safety for at-risk young adults

Motor vehicle accidents are a leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults in the U.S. Young people are notoriously uninformed and oblivious to the perils of risky driving behavior among themselves and their peers. Beginning with lack of seat belt use, cell phone use including texting, street racing and speeding, driving without a license and/or insurance, and driving under the influence, more and more youth and young adults contribute to the increasing rate of serious accidents. To inform the development of a safe driving promotion program for high risk young adults, public health students conducted a targeted needs and assets assessment (NA+A) at the Provisional Accelerated Learning Center (PAL) in San Bernardino, CA. Data collection included windshield surveys/ethnographies, literature reviews, site observations, theory-based semi-structured interviews, and a confirmatory focus group. Data were coded, themed and analyzed using Grounded Theory methods. Results indicated that participants were quite aware of the dangers, gravity, and risks involved with risky driving but dismissed these due to a false sense of invincibility, a felt dependence on driving even if they had no license and insurance, societal norms/pressures to do what “others” did, and/or apathy towards a personal need to change their driving behaviors which they generally ranked as better than that of other young people like them. With these factors in mind, we developed, implemented and evaluated a pilot program using process and impact evaluation. Results of the NA+A process and pilot study will be discussed in light of program sustainability.