News

Alive@25 aimed at safe driving for teens

By Lightning Reports, Published: June 29, 2015

The Hendersonville Police Department will teach the Alive@25 Young Drivers Safety Course on Wednesday, July 1, at 2 p.m. at the Boys and Girls Club of Henderson County, 1304 Ashe Street.

Sgt. Jimmy Case of the Hendersonville Police Department will be the instructor.
“We are honored and thankful to partner with the Leadership of the Henderson County Boys and Girls Club to offer this very important course of training to our community’s new young drivers,” Case said. “Statistics, as well as unfailing local headlines about the tragic deaths of young drivers confirm that our community will benefit from the Alive@25 course. The course is primarily aimed at drivers between the ages of 15 to 21. Traffic accidents are the leading cause of teen fatalities, accounting for 44 percent of teen deaths in our country.”
Statistics show that:

• Young drivers are involved in fatal accidents at more than twice the rate of all others
• The first year for a newly licensed teenage driver is the most dangerous, with more than one in five involved in accidents
• Each year nearly 6,000 teens are killed in vehicular accidents; more than 3,800 are drivers aged 15-20
• Annually, more than 326,000 young drivers are seriously injured
• Exceeding the posted speed limit or driving at an unsafe speed is the most common error in fatal teenage accidents
• More than 1,000 young drivers lose their lives each year in vehicle accidents because of an impaired driver, be it themselves or someone else
• Although this group represents about 7% of the nations’ licensed drivers, they are involved in nearly 15% of all fatal crashes

Any group or organization interested in hosting or presenting the Alive@25 Course may contact Chief Herbert Blake or Sgt. Case at the Hendersonville Police Department at 828-697-3031.