Michigan teen safe-driving program empowers students
to share life-saving traffic safety messages with peers, community
Students at every Michigan high school have a chance to make a difference in their communities and help their fellow teens become better drivers by participating in this year’s “Strive for a Safer Drive” (S4SD) program.
Entering its 14th year, S4SD is a joint effort between the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP) and Ford Philanthropy. The goal of the initiative is to reduce the leading cause of death for teens: traffic crashes.
In 2023, there were 490,368 licensed drivers ages 15-20 in Michigan, which represented 6.6 percent of Michigan’s driving population. However, the drivers in this age group accounted for 10.1 percent (49,041) of drivers in all crashes and 8.2 percent (136) of drivers in fatal crashes.
Risky and dangerous behavior, such as speeding or distracted driving, and inexperience are the primary factors contributing to teen-driver fatalities.
S4SD encourages teens to talk to other teens and community members about making safe driving choices. Schools will develop and implement a student-led, peer-to-peer traffic safety awareness campaign. Topics for this year will focus on Vulnerable Roadways Users, which may include campaigns addressing pedestrian, bicyclist and passenger safety, as well as public-transportation and ride-share challenges.
Participating schools will each receive $1,000 to conduct their campaigns. Once the projects are completed, student teams at each school will submit a video or PowerPoint outlining their campaigns. A panel of traffic safety experts from the OHSP, Ford Philanthropy and the Transportation Improvement Association (TIA) will review the presentations and recognize the top entries.
All Michigan high schools are encouraged to apply for the 2024-2025 S4SD program by the deadline of November 13, 2024.
As part of Ford Philanthropy’s commitment to the campaign, all participating schools will have the opportunity to send students to a free Ford Driving Skills for Life hands-on driving clinic next spring. Professional driving instructors from across the country will teach teens key skills such as hazard recognition, speed and space management, and vehicle handling with hands-on instruction.
Since the 2011 creation of S4SD, 194 different Michigan high schools have participated in the program.
The OHSP has partnered with the TIA to coordinate activities of the S4SD program. For more information about S4SD, please visit Michigan.gov/S4SD.
