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Tom Callan, KSL Newsradio Traffic accidents are the number-one cause of death for teens between the ages of 15 and 19, and it could be because they aren't wearing seat belts.
The Utah Department of Health found only 67 percent of teens regularly buckled up when getting in cars in 2006. Girls were more likely to wear their seat belts than boys, and those driving the car were more likely to buckle up than passengers. In fact, only 53 percent of teens riding in the back seats of cars thought wearing a seat belt was necessary.
For parents worried about there teenagers driving alone, there is a solution.
As part of the Teen Safe Driver Program, customers of American Family Insurance here in Utah, and several other states, can now watch their teens drive without having to leave.
When the teen is out driving, Mom and Dad can watch them right through the tiny lens of a camera behind the rearview mirror. "I would suspect that if the teenager felt that there was some kind of a monitor on their driving, it may help to improve their driving," AAA's Rolaine Fairclough said.
She wonders if teens will still be tempted to show off for their peers. Why not a camera on all of us? "Good point. There's some of us who could use it even though we're a little bit older," Fairclough said.
"DriveCam" records a teen's driving mistakes and then emails the results with a risk rating back to Mom and Dad.
