Schools

University of Minnesota Recruiting Eagan Teens for Safe Driving Study

The university plans to equip teen's vehicles with a dashboard-mounted smartphone designed to monitor driving behavior.

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The University of Minnesota is looking for teen drivers in Eagan willing to take part in a study on driving behavior.

The goal of the project is to learn how to technology can be used to improve teen driving safety and enhance parental involvement with teens during the learning phase of driving.

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The university is looking for 20 teen drivers from Eagan who currently have their driver's permit and will receive their provisional driver’s license between Feb. 1 and April 30, 2013. The teens must be age 16 at that time, and should be able to begin the study within one month of their licensure start date.

As part of the study, teens will receive a free Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone and monthly data, text and talk service plan for one year. Additionally, teens will receive a monthly $25 incentive at the end of the year-long study totaling $300.

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"That first year [of driving] is a reallly a dangerous time for teens," said Nichole Morris, a researcher helping conduct the study. "Teen driving fatalities are really huge and really preventable if we can figure out what’s going on with these risky teen drivers."

The smartphone, Morris said, will be positioned on the vehicle's dashboard and used to monitor teen driving behavior over a one-year period.

For more information, contact Nichole Morris at nlmorris@umn.edu or call 612-624-4614.


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