One of M-CASTL’s goals is to better understand the unique safety and mobility needs of young drivers by advancing research and education within this field. To that end, M-CASTL faculty and staff recently hosted a symposium, entitled the "International Symposium on Teen Driver Safety." The symposium was held Thursday, August 20 at the Michigan Union on the U-M campus. It was organized by M-CASTL, with Executive Committee member Dr. C. Raymond Bingham taking the lead. Dr. Bingham is an expert on adolescent development, and has conducted research focusing on adolescent driving and alcohol use, driver licensing issues, and crash risk and protective factors for teen drivers.

The symposium brought together experts in young driver safety and mobility to assess the current state of knowledge in the field. An additional objective of the symposium was to translate the information compiled by the presenters into a format that is accessible to those who need it most: practitioners, policy makers, educators, parents, researchers, and students. Within the past several years, reports, papers, and meetings have addressed this topic, but the outcomes of these efforts have either been focused toward advancing teen driver research, or geared toward specialized audiences. The presenters at the symposium have been asked to discuss and decide the best way to translate this information to those who need it most. More information about the outcomes of those discussions will be forthcoming.

The program from the symposium, as well as the slides from the presentations are below. More slides and video will be added shortly:

8:00 AM - 8:30 AM: Registration

8:30 AM - 8:40 AM: Welcome and introductions
    David Eby, M-CASTL
    Ray Bingham, UMTRI

8:40 AM - 9:20 AM: Opening Address: Introduction to novice teen drivers – the problem
    Ann Dellinger [video: WM / mp4] [slides], Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

9:20 AM - 10:40 AM: Individual and social factors
    Individual development
        Bonnie Halpern-Felsher [video: WM / mp4] [slides], University of California, San Francisco
    Risk awareness
        Donald Fisher [video: WM / mp4] [slides], University of Massachusetts, Amherst
    Driver licensure
        Ray Bingham [video: WM / mp4] [slides], UMTRI
    Discussant: Divera Twisk [video: WM / mp4] [slides], SWOV-Institute for Road and Safety Research, The Netherlands

10:40 AM - 10:50 AM: Break

10:50 AM - 12:10 PM: Risk factors
    Impairment
        Teresa Senserrick [video: WM / mp4] [slides], The George Institute for International Health, University of Sydney, Australia
    Passengers
        Marie Claude Ouimet [video: WM / mp4] [slides], National Institute of Child Health and Development
    Driving purpose and exposure
        Tsippy Lotan [video: WM / mp4] [slides], Or Yarok, Ramat Hasharon, Israel
    Discussant: Allan Williams [video: WM / mp4], Retired from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

12:10 PM - 1:10 PM: Lunch

1:10 PM - 2:00 PM: Keynote Address: The Australian Perspective
    Mary Sheehan [video: WM / mp4] [slides], Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

2:00 PM - 3:20 PM: Promising approaches
    Graduated driver licensing
        Jean Shope [video: WM / mp4] [slides], UMTRI
    Parent involvement/Checkpoints
        Bruce Simons-Morton [video: WM / mp4] [slides], National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
    Electronic feedback
        Keli Braitman [video: WM / mp4] [slides], Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
    Discussant: Ruth Shults [video: WM / mp4], CDC, Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention in the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

3:20 PM - 4:00 PM: Future directions
    Rob Foss [video: WM / mp4] [slides], University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center

4:00 PM - 4:30 PM: Wrap up

The symposium was sponsored in part by: