Expectations for Life
It’s time for some serious talk here on Open Road about the safety of our children, so let's begin with the basics:

A: Toyota makes and sells motor vehicles, and all sorts of people drive them. Among those people are teenagers.

B: One out of five 16-year-old drivers has an accident during the first year of driving.

C: Although teens make up only 6.6% of licensed drivers nationally, they account for nearly 14% of all auto-related fatalities. Indeed, 16-year-olds have the highest crash rate of any age. They are three times more likely to die in a car crash than the average driver.

D: In 2005, 5,699 people between the ages of 16 and 20 were killed in motor vehicle crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

E: Motor vehicle crashes continue to be the leading cause of death for American teenagers.

Clearly, there is cause for concern. And, to address that concern, we’ve instituted a program called Toyota Driving Expectations.

Toyota Driving Expectations is designed to put newly licensed teens into the classroom for instruction on the art and science of safe driving. But it’s not just a classroom exercise. It’s also hands-on. The program puts teens behind the wheel of new Toyotas and Scions where, in multiple defensive-driving exercises, they can learn the practical application of their lessons.

The program’s curriculum is designed to introduce and define defensive-driving behaviors to teens and to help them identify the dangerous driving situations that they face daily.

Conventional driving courses that offer teens the opportunity to drive in everyday driving conditions are fine, as far as they go. But they may not focus on the concept of accident avoidance. Toyota Driving Expectations focuses on exactly that.

Driving Expectations emphasizes safety through active car-control techniques, and it seeks to prepare teens for different driving scenarios. As part of the program’s curriculum, participants work through evasive maneuvers, avoidance techniques and brake-and-steer control exercises on wet and dry surfaces.

But the program isn’t just about teenagers. It’s also about parents. Indeed, in order for a teenager to participate, a parent or guardian must come along for the four-hour program. That’s important because most teen drivers are taught to drive by their parents, and most parents haven’t had training on teaching defensive driving and providing constructive feedback.

The program splits parents and teens into separate groups for part of each session, allowing parents to learn about vehicle safety and technology, and about defensive driving habits. The program concludes with teens and parents reuniting to develop a safe-driving contract to be put into practice when the families return home.

To participate, teens must be between the ages of 15 and 19, and must have a valid driver's license or learner's permit. We recommend that teens attending the event have at least 20 hours of driving experience to gain the most from Toyota Driving Expectations.

To date, since its inception in 2004, more than 5,500 teens and parents have completed the program. We see that as a very good thing, and as a major step forward toward our goal of saving lives, one teen at a time.