Educating Teenage Drivers in the Pacific Northwest Regarding the Dangers of Distracted Driving

The goal of this outreach project was to examine driver distraction among high school and college students in the Pacific Northwest. Specifically, to identify secondary tasks they consider distracting and determine their self-reported engagement in those same secondary tasks while driving. An interactive presentation was developed and administered to 2,500 younger drivers (approximately 600 participants in each of the four states Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington). Younger Drivers were recruited from high schools and universities in each state. Of those participants, 2,378 younger drivers responded to a pre- and post-survey administered immediately before and two weeks after the presentation. The purpose of the survey was to measure the degree to which the interactive presentation improved younger driver perspectives regarding the hazards of distracted driving. Results indicated that the interactive presentation positively influenced younger driver perspectives, meaning that after the interactive presentation, younger drivers were more likely to correctly identify different types of distracted driving.