Behind the wheel
What parents and teens need to know
By Susan Nienow CONTRIBUTING WRITER

At press time, Gov. Tim Kaine was expected to approve legislation that would make it a secondary offense for teens like SteffiSempek to talk on a cell phone while driving.

It's been just seven months since Linda and Will Hahn lost their daughter Diana in a traffic crash. Even so, the still grieving parents feel it's important to warn teens about the dangers of driving, so they decided to share Diana's story during "Come Home Alive," a driver awareness program recently presented at James River High School.

About 150 parents, teens and others who attended the program sat transfixed as the Hahns recounted the nightmare every parent fears. The Hahns' talk was particularly relevant to this audience since Diana would have been a senior at James River this year.

Diana was the only teen driver fatality in Chesterfield in 2006. She had just finished her final exam on June 14, and was going to spend the day with her cousin from Colonial Heights, Kassidy Hahn, when she pulled out in front of a van traveling along Lucks Lane. Both Diana and Kassidy were killed.

The crash happened in the morning and in good weather, stressed the Hahns. No one knows why Diana didn't see the van.

Also speaking was Jerry Fuss, who, with his wife Lynn, continues to grieve the loss of his daughter Julie eight years ago, just two days after the Columbine tragedy.

Both sets of parents wanted to stress that their daughters were good kids with good grades who weren't drinking, taking drugs, racing or involved in other dangerous games. This could be anyone's story.

And unfortunately, it's the story of too many parents. Traffic crashes are the No. 1 killer of U.S. teens with a fatality rate four times higher than drivers ages 25-69. In 2005 in Chesterfield County, there were 2,103 teens involved in crashes and 528 were injured. (Traffic accidents are now called crashes by police because the word accident implies that it couldn't have been prevented.)

Since 2004, there have been 11 teenagers killed in the county. In 2005, there were three teen driver fatalities, four in 2004, two in 2003 and four in 2002. The county statistics just reflect teen driver fatalities, not who was at fault.

Nationally, about 5,600 teens died in traffic crashes in 2005, and about 7,500 were driving cars involved in fatal crashes.

Sponsored by Chesterfield County Public Schools, the Chesterfield Police Department and the Allstate Foundation, the goal of the Come Home Alive program is to reduce the number of car crashes involving teens and save lives through awareness. Offered at every high school to tenth grade students and their parents, the program gives an overview of driver education, traffic laws governing teen drivers, insurance tips, safety reminders and more.

The program also gets parents more involved - a trend mirrored by recent changes in driver education laws in Virginia. In addition to the required 36 hours of in-class instruction and 14 hours of observation and behind the wheel training given by the schools, parents must now certify that their child has had 40 hours of behind the wheel practice, 10 of which must have been after sunset.

Also, the age at which a teen can get a driver's license has been changed to 16 and three months. Even then, teens are only granted a 90-day provisional license. The teen must have a learner's permit for at least nine months before getting a license.

Still, despite the lengthy training and even with the best safety measures, it's difficult for most parents to watch their child pull out of the driveway the first few times.

"The hardest thing in all of their childhood was to let my child walk out of the house with the car keys," said Mary Ann Reid, who attended the Come Home Alive program at James River with her second oldest daughter Ann.

"The rule is simple: no music, radio or cell phone while driving. Virginia DMV has rules, but it is our rules first," added Reid.

Fred Lucas, who attended the program with his tenth grade son, agreed. He plans to limit the times and places his son drives, making him accountable for the "who, what, where, why and how" answers.

Come Home Alive

Come Home Alive safe driving sessions are being held at each high school. If you missed the one at the high school in your area, the last two sessions will be held at Meadowbrook High School on Feb. 28 and Clover Hill High School on March 1, both at 7 p.m. The program was made possible by an $11,000 grant from the Allstate Foundation.