Celebrity Mom Niki Taylor Encourages Parents to Talk to Their Teens About Safe Driving

Celebrity Mom Niki Taylor Encourages Parents to Talk to Their Teens About Safe
Driving
To kick off National Teen Driver Safety Week, Taylor helps raise awareness of
the teen driving issue with a new online parent resource

BLOOMINGTON, Ill., Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of National Teen Driver
Safety Week, supermodel, car crash survivor and mother of two teenagers, Niki
Taylor has teamed up with State Farm® to share an important message with
parents: how you talk to your teens about safe driving can significantly
affect the likelihood of your teen having a tragic crash.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20091019/CG94482)

Car crashes remain the No. 1 cause of death among teens; however many teen
driver-related injuries and deaths are preventable. The goal of National Teen
Driver Safety Week (NTDSW), Oct. 18-24, is to raise awareness of this issue
and provide solutions to teen driving deaths.

According to State Farm's claims database, addressing teen driver safety in
October is especially timely. From 2003 - 2007 October averaged the highest
number of teen vehicle crashes and on average the number of 16- and
17-year-old driver claims involving injury or collision increases nearly 20
percent in October as compared to other months.

As part of their efforts to address the issue, State Farm and The Children's
Hospital of Philadelphia formed the Young Driver Research Initiative (YDRI) to
reduce teen driver deaths through scientific research. A new study from the
YDRI, published on Sept. 28, 2009 in the medical journal Pediatrics, reveals
that the way parents communicate to their teens about safe driving can
strongly influence their teens' likelihood of a car crash.

The study is based on the National Young Driver Survey of more than 5,500
teenagers. The study, "Associations Between Parenting Styles and Teen Driving,
Safety-Related Behaviors and Attitudes", revealed that teens who said their
parents set clear rules, paid attention to whom they were with and where they
were going, and did so in a supportive way were:
-- Half as likely to crash
-- Twice as likely to wear seatbelts
-- 71 percent less likely to drive while intoxicated

-- 30 percent less likely to use a cell phone while driving

"This research is significant because it shows the profound effect parent-teen
interactions have on a teen's likelihood to crash," says Kenneth Ginsburg, MD,
MSEd, co-author of the study. "Once they're behind the wheel, teens have
ultimate responsibility for their behavior, but kids who said their parents
set rules in a supportive way were half as likely to be in a crash compared
with teens that saw their parents as less involved."

To highlight these new research findings, State Farm, together with The
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, developed an online resource to help
guide parents about how to talk to their teens about safe driving. The
resource, housed on www.statefarm.com/teendriving, includes teen driving facts
and statistics, an interactive quiz, video demonstrations, and research-based
tips for parents.

"State Farm is committed to saving lives, and we value these studies to help
us better understand the factors behind teen crashes. We intend to provide
real solutions," says Laurette Stiles, State Farm's Vice President of
Strategic Resources. "Using what we've learned from these latest findings, we
want to help parents keep their teens safe. The new online resource provides
parents with important tips for setting rules that are most likely to protect
their teens."

To help reach parents with this important message, State Farm has teamed with
supermodel Niki Taylor, who has a personal connection to the teen driving
issue. In 2001, Taylor was critically injured in a car crash when the driver
of the car reached for his cell phone and lost control of the vehicle before
running into a utility pole. After numerous operations and substantial
physical therapy, Taylor has recovered from the accident and now wants to help
bring attention to the issue.

"As the mother of two teenage sons, and a car crash survivor, I know first
hand the gravity of this issue," says Taylor, "I'm proud to be working with
State Farm on this initiative and to help inform other parents about the
simple steps we can take to keep our kids safe on the road."

Taylor is the mother of two 14-year-old boys and is known as one of the most
successful international models of all time. She most recently co-hosted the
television show, "Make Me a Supermodel," on the Bravo network.

To learn more about National Teen Driver Safety week or to view the online
parent resource, please visit: www.statefarm.com/teendriving.

About National Teen Driver Safety Week
In 2007, Congress has passed a resolution establishing every third week in
October as National Teen Driver Safety Week (NTDSW). NTDSW raises awareness
about the tragedy of teen vehicle crashes, the leading cause of death for
young people in the U.S., and it sparks communication among teenagers, their
parents and civic leaders about the causes of and solutions to teen crashes.
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm Insurance Companies®,
which have an ongoing teen driver research alliance and outreach initiative,
played a key role in the designation.

About the Young Driver Research Initiative
Motor vehicle crashes remain the No. 1 cause of death among teens in the
United States. Teen drivers (ages 16 to 19) have fatal crashes at four times
the rate of adult drivers (ages 25 to 69). To reduce injury and death from
young driver-related crashes through scientific research and outreach, The
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm Insurance Companies® formed
an alliance called the Young Driver Research Initiative (YDRI). These papers
as well as other recent research from CHOP and State Farm are described in a
just-released report called Driving Through the Eyes of Teens: A Closer Look.
For more information, visit www.chop.edu/youngdrivers or
www.statefarm.com/teendriving

About State Farm®:
State Farm insures more cars and homes than any other insurer in the U.S., is
the leading insurer of watercraft and is also a leading insurer in Canada.
State Farm's 17,700 agents and 68,600 employees serve 81 million policies and
accounts - more than 78.7 million auto, fire, life and health policies in the
United States and Canada, and more than 1.9 million bank accounts. State Farm
Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of
companies. State Farm is ranked No. 31 on the Fortune 500 list of largest
companies. For more information, please visit statefarm.com® or in Canada
statefarm.ca®.

About The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's
first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing
exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric health care
professionals and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital
has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its
pediatric research program is among the largest in the country, ranking third
in National Institutes of Health funding. In addition, its unique
family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 430-bed
hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For
more information, visit http://www.chop.edu.

SOURCE State Farm

Vicki Harper of State Farm Insurance Companies, +1-309-766-9743,
vicki.harper.hycc@statefarm.com