Southern Maryland. Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s Counties’ parents with newly licensed 16 and 17-year old drivers are invited to attend this week’s “DriveCam” public meetings. The DriveCam product is an in-car camera system that will save a 20-second video clip when the teen has a significant change in g-forces type of “event”, such as hard braking or swerving. Video clips are made available by DriveCam to participating parents a day or so after an “event’s” occurrence. This gives parents the opportunity to discuss what led to the event privately and determine with their teen how to improve driving skills, address choices made while driving, or reward their teen for handling complex situations well. The DriveCam unit, installation by Best Buy and one-year’s service will be free to 300 parents in Southern Maryland that are interested in participating in the regional program, which was developed as a grant-funded pilot project to reduce the prevalence and severity of local teen driver crashes through the coming 2008 – 2009 school year.
The DriveCam public meetings will all be held at 7 p.m., as follows:
• Wednesday, July 9th at Thomas Stone High School, Waldorf, Maryland;
• Thursday, July 10th at Huntingtown Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad; and
• Friday, July 11th in the Auditorium at the Leonardtown Campus for the College of Southern Maryland.
Parents will have the opportunity to ask questions about the regional pilot project, see a demonstration of the DriveCam product in action, view testimonials from previous teen and parent participants and decide if they are interested in participating in the free program. Anyone wanting detailed information about the program or directions to the meetings can contact Debbie Jennings, Coordinator for the Calvert County Traffic Safety Council at (410) 535-2200.
