Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has announced an innovative new partnership with auto insurers NJM Insurance Group (NJM) to help prepare teenagers to drive safely.
A $4 million grant from NJM will launch a state-of-the-art virtual driving assessment system for young drivers and comes after research showed that more than 95 percent of novice driver crashes are due to driver error.
The assessment system will utilize the Ready-Assess software developed by Diagnostic Driving, Inc., a CHOP spin-out. The office-based assessment exposes drivers to common and serious crash scenarios to measure crash-avoidance skills. At the end of the assessment, teens receive feedback on their crash-avoidance skills.
“This program is the first-of-its-kind in the world and will be an exciting opportunity for novice drivers to participate in engaging, interactive virtual driving and assessment in preparation for safe driving,” said Dr Flaura Winston, Founder and Scientific Director of the Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP) at CHOP.
The virtual assessments will be held at select CHOP Primary Care locations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The program will be fully implemented at most CHOP Care Network sites over the next four years.
