The SafeTeen Georgia Driving Academy is a driving safety fair held every year in the Atlanta metro area. This day long event allows teens and their parents to learn the basics of safe driving through interactive “Pit Stop” classrooms and demonstrations taught by the Safe America Foundation training staff, law enforcement, fire fighters, emergency medical personnel and juvenile traffic court judges.

For the past decade, between 5,000 and 6,000 teenagers die in vehicle crashes every year. These drivers are also 400% more likely to die in a car crash than 25-34 year old drivers. This is not just a national problem; Georgia ranks 4th in the nation for teen car crashes, yet a very low percentage of the state’s teens get driver education. Since 2002, the Safe America Foundation and the Driving Academy’s corporate sponsors have worked together to change this and make Georgia’s roads safer by teaching metro Atlanta teens the importance of safe driving.

Begun in 2002 as the Teen Driving Institute, the Driving Academy was initially a weekday driving safety event for metro Atlanta high school students held in the parking lot of Lockheed Marten. In an acknowledgement that parental involvement has a major impact on teen driving habits, the Foundation decided to move the event to the weekend. Since 2005, Atlanta Motor Speedway has served as the Driving Academy’s home.

Over the years, the SafeTeen Georgia Driving Academy has continued to evolve and keep pace with emerging traffic safety issues. Reflecting these changes, in 2010 the program included two new features:

• A special training ‘pit stops’ highlight the dangers of texting while driving a car – part of Safe America’s summer-long anti-texting while driving public awareness campaign titled “Exit 2 Text It.”