Text Size:     

For Immediate Release

CONTACT: Samantha Hubbard, National Market Director
417-887-0220, Ext. 2432
American National Property And Casualty Companies
American National Corporate Centre
1949 E. Sunshine Street
Springfield, MO 65899-0001
shubbard@anpac.com

Parents Help Keep Teen Drivers Safe with DriveSmart^sm

New Safety Program's Monitoring Device Keeps Tabs on Teens' Driving, Possibly Saving Money and Lives

[Springfield, MO, June 9, 2009] – With the unveiling of DriveSmart, featuring an in-car teen driver monitoring device, parents can now access powerful technology that encourages good driving habits and can help parents know whether their teens are safe.

The Deadly Facts
Crashes continue to be the leading cause of death for teens.¹ Watching their teen walk out the door with car keys and a new driver’s license can be nerve-wracking for parents, especially when considering these startling statistics:

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, teenagers’ disproportionately high crash rates and crash-related deaths are primarily a result of immaturity combined with driving inexperience.5

Teens are more likely to speed and drive aggressively, often unbuckled – a recipe for disaster and a dilemma for parents.^{3, 4} Parents can’t ride along on every trip. But with DriveSmart, a revolutionary teen safety program by American National Property And Casualty Company (ANPAC^®), parents can virtually ride shotgun with their teens, receiving real-time information about their teens’ driving and whereabouts while preserving their teens’ sense of independence.

Gregory V. Ostergren, who is ANPAC Chairman, President and CEO, and also the 2009 Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Chairman, emphasizes the importance of parent involvement as teens prepare to transition into the exciting and dangerous adult world of driving:

“As parents, from the time of their birth we have provided guidance to our children to keep them safe from dangers they have not yet experienced in their life. Research shows that this same parental involvement is still very effective and important during their teen driving years. This is not a matter of trust but a matter of caring,” says Ostergren.

Smart Device Encourages Safer Driving

Currently, the only device approved by ANPAC for the DriveSmart program is Inthinc’s Tiwi. Using GPS technology, the Tiwi device records information on a teen driver’s location and speed. It also features an emergency call button, which works like a hands-free cell phone when activated. The device can record information about seatbelt use and aggressive driving maneuvers, and it allows parents to set and monitor geographic limits for their teens’ trips – a feature called geofencing.

Tiwi is set apart from other monitoring devices because it is able to compare a driver’s speed to a proprietary database of street-by-street posted speed limits. Speeding was the most prevalent risky teen driving behavior in a recent study. It was also the behavior identified by 81 percent of parents as their primary concern.²

The Tiwi unit is also unique because, unlike monitoring devices like DriveCam, Tiwi provides feedback to parents and teens in real time. With Tiwi, parents have access to their teens’ whereabouts and driving behavior at any time.

A Mentor, Not a Tattletale

The DriveSmart program gives teens a grace period, without which teens have less incentive to change risky behavior. IIHS reported this month that teenagers in their study consistently reduced their speeding habits only when using a monitoring device that did all of the following:

1. Alerted them to their speeding,

2. Gave them a chance to correct their behavior (unreported to parents), and also
3. Provided report cards of their driving to their parents.⁶

The Tiwi device featured by DriveSmart immediately alerts teen drivers when unsafe driving behavior occurs. For instance, the device might say “Speeding violation” or “Please buckle your seatbelt.” The teen then has an opportunity to correct the behavior without a notification being sent to the parent.

Parents are notified of uncorrected behavior by e-mail, text message, or personal phone call. Or, they can log in to a portal Web site to view specific trips and identify exactly where a driving event took place. Parents also receive driving “grade cards” online, which they can use to reward teens.

Saving Money, Worry, and Perhaps Lives

Safe driving saves money. It saves money on fuel and potential fines for driving violations, not to mention the expense and grief spared by avoiding an accident.

While parents do make an initial investment by purchasing the monitoring device for DriveSmart (Inthinc’s Tiwi retails for $599), it becomes cost-effective when it prevents insurance rates from being hit with penalties for speeding tickets, or worse. One speeding ticket can cost a 16-year-old driver hundreds in additional insurance premiums over a year. An accident can add more than $1,000 in premiums.

Of parents who tested in-car monitoring devices in IIHS’s study, 98 percent said they would recommend the device they tested to other parents. Teens also thought the devices made them better drivers. More than 81 percent of teens in the study said the devices were effective.2

ANPAC^® feels so strongly that DriveSmart is effective in promoting safe driving, that the company offers a substantial discount on teens’ insurance rates. The DriveSmart program also includes teen driver safety presentations and informational meetings with parents, available through local American National agents. Inthinc offers American National clients a discount on their initial purchase of Tiwi through a DriveSmart promotional code.

More information on DriveSmart and teen driving safety can be found at www.drivesmartforteens.com