Corey Murphy, the principal of Beaufort High School in South Carolina, watched as two students disappeared from his school due to traffic accidents. A third student was hit in a crash and severely injured, unable to attend class any longer. Watching the young students end or severely limit their lives so early on was devastating, and Murphy decided that it was time to intervene. Teens often assume that they are immune to accidents, and will drive recklessly or distractedly without any fear of a crash. Yet statistics show that motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among males and females that are 13 to 10 in the United States. The Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association says that sixteen-year-olds have the highest crash rate among teenagers in the United States.

Teen drivers are also least likely to wear seatbelts, and are most prone to use illegal hand-help cellphones while driving. Teens also tend to text or explore the web on their phones while they are behind the wheel. While this is illegal in most states, it doesn’t change the fact that teens try to smuggle a text in here and there when speeding down the highway or maneuvering a windy road. 33 percent of all the teen drivers killed in 2009 were also driving with alcohol in their system. While the U.S. has a zero tolerance policy for teen drivers, that doesn’t change the fact that these young men and women are tempted to experiment with liquor and intoxicating beverages.

Because of teens’ tendency to drive distractedly and fail to observe traffic safety laws, Corey Murphy put his foot down. He determined that any teenagers who want to park at their public high school need to take a traffic safety course first in order to obtain their parking permit. Without that permit, which is only issued on the final day of class, the teens will have to park down the street, take the bus, or have their parents drop them off. The course was developed by the National Safety Council and is called “Alive at 25.” It is offered at a variety of schools, but not always required. In fact, 103 schools in South Caroline offer the class and only 72 require it for parking privileges. Educational institutions all over the U.S. are following Murphy’s example and slowly starting to require the class in order to give their teens parking permits.

In Oklahoma, three schools have issued the parking permit requirement and nearly 2,000 students have sat in classrooms to learn driver’s safety. In Kentucky, a high school in Meade County tried the requirement last year. This year, they have decided to give teens a 50 percent discount on their parking permit fee for taking the class instead. They hope that this will still motivate teens to get in the class and learn how they can safely operate their vehicles. In North Carolina, Illinois, and New York, some schools have already announced that the class is now a requirement for a parking permit.

The program isn’t a semester-long class, but a 4-and-a-half hour lecture that is full of video and curriculum so teens can follow along. The National Safety Council believes that the course has had an impact on teen drivers and helped them to slowly start driving safety. The course involves a lot of stories of teens who died because they made foolish decisions while behind the wheel. One teen who was interviewed for USA Today after completing Alive at 25 says that the course really opened up his eyes. He said that the videos that were shown in the class were very graphic, but helped him to realize the potential dangers on the road. If you have been involved in a teen driving accident, and want compensation for the damage inflicted from the accident, then talk to a car accident attorney right away.