FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                    
September 9, 2014
CONTACT:  Linda Grant
Phone:  207-624-9124                                                                    

THE PARENT’S SUPERVISED DRIVING PROGRAM RECEIVES NATIONAL HONORS

Safe Roads Alliance Accepts Award for Maine Program

(Grand Rapids, MI) The Governors Highway Safety Association today awarded Safe Roads Alliance with the 2014 Peter K. O'Rourke Special Achievement Awards which is given each year to recognize notable achievements in the field of highway safety.     

Safe Roads Alliance, in partnership with the Maine Department of the Secretary of State, Bureau of Motor Vehicles, launched The Parent’s Supervised Driving Program in an effort to improve teen driver safety. The guidebook focuses on the important role of parents during the Learner’s Permit phase of the licensing process and provides a resource to help and encourage parents to expand upon the amount and diversity of their teen’s driving experience. 

The program provides a printed resource guidebook which is handed out at the end of the parental involvement component.   Parents and teens are also encouraged to download the Program’s free mobile app., RoadReady™ to track the time they spend together behind the wheel with the click of a button.

We are proud and honored to be part of this award, said Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap. Helping parents is the best way to help teens become safer, smarter drivers.

Steve Kenner, Global Director of Ford’s Automotive Safety Office stated, “The skills outlined in this guide are meant to help teens learn to be better drivers. It is one of the ways Ford works to help teens.” Kenner continued, “Our commitment to teen safe driving is at the heart of Ford’s Go Further brand promise, and we are very pleased to be a part of this achievement.”

Parents have a great influence over the way their teen drives, says Jeff Larson, President of Safe Roads Alliance. The Learners Permit phase is the last and best chance for parents to have a positive impact and The Parents Supervised Driving Program guide and mobile app provide the tools that can help.

Through a public-private effort supported by Ford Motor Company, Vermont Mutual Insurance and Irving Oil, the Maine BMV is able to provide this valuable resource to parents of teen drivers at no cost to families or to taxpayers. The sponsorship allows the Maine BMV to address a critical need and provide parents with a resource geared toward skill development.

Roadway safety programs are a critical part of the nation’s solutions to saving lives and preventing injuries on our nation’s highways.  There were 33,561 people killed in traffic crashes on U.S. roads in 2012.  

For additional information on The Parent’s Supervised Driving Program, please visit http://www.theparentssuperviseddrivingprogram.com/ ; on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TheParentsSupervisedDrivingProgram; and on Twitter at @PSDP_Info, #RoadReady.

For additional information on GHSA, please visit www.ghsa.org; on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/GHSAhq; and on Twitter at @ghsahq,