On Jan. 23, 2010, Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell announced the results of a survey showing that teen drivers’ parents found attending the state's new two-hour required driver training session was overwhelmingly beneficial and has led them to adopt new safety measures with their young drivers.
The federally-funded survey, conducted by Preusser Research Group (PRG) in Trumbull, showed 85 of the parents reported that the training gave them more information to use with their teen driver. Additionally, 82 percent said they would recommend these classes to parents of other teen drivers.
The mandatory course was among the governor's initiatives in 2008 when revamping the state's teen driving laws. The changes included increases in training, driving restrictions and penalties for violating the new laws that followed a series of teen deaths from car crashes in 2007.
In the survey, almost half the parents also said that because of the training, they were doing things with their young drivers they would not have done otherwise, such as enforcing the laws, reminding teens about the laws and spending more time for instruction. Almost all parents were satisfied that all relevant topics were covered during the course.
All new drivers in Connecticut are required to take an eight-hour safe driving class a driving school and parents are required to attend two of those hours in safety instruction. The Department of Motor Vehicles provides driving schools with a general list of topics that must be covered in the two-hour parent/teen session.
Connecticut was among the first states in the nation to adopt a requirement for this kind of parent training session. PRG, the pollster, said this is the first such study done in the country on a required parent information session in the training process for teen drivers.
For the full survey go to: http://www.ct.gov/dmv/parentsession.