SGI encouraging Sask. teens to start safe driving groups
SGI hopes that distributing safe driving resource kits will reduce collision rates among young drivers.
“We know youth play a critical role in influencing positive behaviour among their peers,” said SGI spokesperson Heather Anderson.
Young drivers are over represented in traffic statistics, says Anderson.
According to SGI data in 2020, drivers 19 and younger were involved in 16 per cent of all major injury collisions, causing 611 injuries and 15 deaths.
“We need to start targeting them now so that they can correct those habits and become better drivers as they continue throughout their driving career,” said Anderson.
She says the new strategy is meant to help teens establish good driving habits.
The insurance agency is sending out resource kits to high schools and youth groups across the province.
The kits contain USB memory drives with posters and information about how to start safe driving groups and how host safety events and courses.
Anderson says the kits are meant to “start a conversation about safe driving” among teens.
“I think they do enough to promote safe driving but not towards youth,” said Keestin Danielson, 16, about SGI.
Danielson completed the mandatory driver training prior to getting his driver’s license.
The Grade 10 student says he would join a peer-to-peer group if one was available.
“It could be helpful, but the hard part would be getting people to participate in the group,” said Danielson.
“If you have bad friends they will peer pressure you into stuff like that,” said Jacey Melnyk.
“I think those (SGI peer-to-peer initiatives) would influence people to drive safely.”
Topics covered in the SGI resource kits include distracted driving, speeding and impairment.
SGI says Saskatchewan teens are twice as likely as those of other ages to be injured due to impaired driving.
They’re also three-and-a-half times more likely than those of other ages to be injured due to speed-related crashes.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Pilot reported fire onboard plane carrying fuel, attempted to return to Fairbanks just before crash
One of the two pilots aboard an airplane carrying fuel reported there was a fire on the airplane shortly before it crashed and burned outside Fairbanks, killing both people on board, a federal aviation official said Wednesday.
'One of the single most terrifying things ever': Ontario couple among passengers on sinking tour boat in Dominican Republic
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
7 surveillance videos linked to extortions of South Asian home builders in Edmonton released
The Edmonton Police Service has released a number of surveillance videos related to a series of extortion cases in the city now dubbed 'Project Gaslight.'
Ukraine uses long-range missiles secretly provided by U.S. to hit Russian-held areas, officials say
Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles provided secretly by the United States, bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight, American officials said Wednesday.