The Windham County Sheriff’s Office Enhanced Teen Driver Safety Program began in 2014. Over the past 9 years our program has grown and evolved into a comprehensive resource available to every driver education program in Windham County Vermont. Our growth and success are the result of many highway safety partners who have supported our program with time, funding, and resources. If you are receiving this email, you are considered a valued partner and I want to take this opportunity to highlight some of the successes we have witnessed over the past few years.
From the beginning this concept had a simple goal. Offer existing Driver Education Programs additional resources that would enhance highway safety knowledge and insight which would result in fewer teen crashes. Throughout my law enforcement career, I spent plenty of time enforcing laws in an effort to improve highway safety. However, I was not afforded many opportunities to offer education as a source to influence driving behavior.
I believed there was a better way for law enforcement to promote highway safety and started the process of creating a new proactive program. Instead to using enforcement to enhance highway safety, my vision was to use education to establish a foundation of safe driving practices. Therefore, motorists would have all the knowledge necessary to make wise driving decisions. Historically, police hear about crashes and respond to investigate. They then hold the operators accountable while documenting all the details within a report. My vision was to educate motorists about highway safety and provide them with tips and techniques that would be used to avoid the crash in the first place.
The plan was to make this program available to various driver education programs within Windham County VT. Throughout my 37-year law enforcement career, I’ve learned a great deal about the “Law Enforcement Prospective” on highway safety. Lessons from working the highways and investigating thousands of crashes. What works to avoid crashes, and behaviors to avoid if the intent is to stay crash free.
I quickly learned that driver’s education is taught at every public high school in Vermont and these skilled instructors were passionate about the subjects they taught. They already had excellent programs in place. However, many did not include law enforcement as guest speakers, but recognized the benefits of adding them.
The combination of having an experienced highway safety police officer occasionally working with a certified driver education instructor received excellent reviews from teenagers and parents. We offer topics such as Motor Vehicle Laws, impaired driving, drowsy driving, distracted driving, what violations and road characters contribute to the largest number of teen crashes. Additionally, we discuss trends and historical statistics for teen seat belt compliance, and overall teen crash data which is already being collected by law enforcement. However, it is not being consistently included in driver education classes. I questioned if sharing this information would yield positive results by reducing teen crashes?
Five years ago, The Enhanced Teen Driver Safety Program received a grant from State Farm Insurance to purchase 3 Virtual Driver Interactive driving simulators. The vision was to introduce these simulators to the classes and offer students multiple opportunities to train on them. The learning curve was steep and coordinating with various schools was challenging. However, in time we realized the benefits of introducing this technology. But, would it yield positive results by reducing teen crashes?
The Enhanced Teen Driver Safety Program relies on a great deal of support from a wide range of resources. Each of you in some way make this unique program possible and I’m very grateful for everyone’s support. Therefore, it is important to me that everyone receives recognition for any of our achievements.
I am pleased to report the following findings from 2022 Vermont crash data. The following should help answer the question “Does all the work you do make a difference in reducing teen crashes” These results are based upon year over year, changes by percentage, for teenage operators between the age of 15-17.9
In 2022 Windham County law enforcement reported 15.3% reduction in the total number of collisions as compared to data from 2021, which was a record-breaking year for the lowest number of crashes reported within a single year. I then looked at calendar year 2019, which was a historically average year for Windham County teen crashes (pre-covid) I compared this data over a three-year period and found that each year, teen operators reported fewer crashes. The combined reduction in crashes for this three-year period was a whopping 69%! Below you can see the graph of teen crashes in Windham County from 2019 to 2022, provided by Windham County Sheriff’s Department.
I also conducted a deeper dive into the teen crash data for Windham County. I accessed each law enforcement investigative report submitted for all 2022 Windham County Teen Crashes. Reading these reports provides valuable insight into why teens are crashing and will later be used to shape future classes being offered to our students. Of the 22 reported teen crashes, I found 2 were errors by law enforcement and did not meet the criteria for a crash. Ten crashes either listed the teen operator as not the responsible operator for the two-vehicle crash, or involved teen operators who did not live in Vermont. Therefore, this 69% crash reduction is more impressive after all the details are known.
I would never be so bold to say that the Enhanced Teen Driver Safety Program was responsible for influencing teen operator behavior, which resulted in such a dramatic reduction in crashes. However, we’re clearly doing something different in Windham County Vermont and it’s getting results! Perhaps it’s the exceptional driver education instructors, or the use of driving simulators, or maybe we have fewer teens obtaining licenses in Windham County, or maybe the entire state of Vermont is also reporting similar teen crash reduction results. Or just maybe, it’s all of the above! Everyone pitching in to make a difference and working toward making each Windham County teen’s journey through the graduated license process a pleasant and memorable one for all the right reasons.
To address the possible explanations listed in the above paragraph, I researched the data and found Windham County Teens crashed at a significantly reduced rate when compared to the entire state of Vermont teen crash rates for each of the 3 years. Furthermore, for the same time frame, the Vermont Dept of Motor Vehicles reported an increase in the number of teens obtaining privileges to drive. Therefore, these reductions weren’t attributed to something unique.
In closing, our highway safety partners have a great deal to be proud of. Yes, you (parents, community, schools, organizations, etc.) do make a difference and all your contributions are having a positive impact on highway safety and influencing teen driving behavior.
Respectfully Yours
Michael Roj
Windham County Sheriff Office
Enhanced Teen Driver Safety Program