These are the statistics on teen driving and crashes:

• Car crashes are the leading cause of death for American teens - more than drugs, guns, or any disease.
• A teenager's first 500 miles of driving are the most dangerous. During that time, they're 10 times more likely to crash than an adult.
• In 2003 alone, teens were involved in an estimated 1,500,000 accidents.
• Two-thirds of teenagers who died in car accidents last year were not buckled up.
• Auto accidents and teen statistics also show that teenagers are four times more likely to be killed in an auto accident than are people older than twenty five.
• Of all fatal teen auto accidents, one third involves speed related collisions.
• During the most recent five year period for which records are available, nearly 35,000 people died when a teenager was driving.
• Teen drivers killed in motor vehicle collisions had a youth passenger in the car 45% of the time.
• 53% of teen driver deaths occur on weekends.
• 15-20 year olds make up only 7% of the licensed drivers, but suffer 14% of all fatalities and 20% of all reported collisions.
• On the basis of current population trends, there will be 23% more 16-20 year old drivers on the road in 2010 than there are today - 26 million.
  

Why is this happening? The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has conducted a study which sheds new light on what parents have long suspected - teenagers lack good judgment. A new study may show that there is a biological link that prevents teens from making critical driving decisions. Using brain scans, NIH saw that teenagers' brains are not fully developed. Particularly, the portions that regulate risk-taking and impulse control, crucial to driving. The study shows that the portion of the brain that regulates risk-taking and impulse control has not matured until after the age of 20, four years after most teens start to drive.

So what is a parent to do? You can't always be in the car with them, or can you? Now you can! Or at least the next best thing. Enter in, "Driver I.Q." by Archetype. The Birmingham, Ala. based company that specializes in asset tracking and global management solutions. Archetype, along with Siemens Corporation and Cingular, has formed relationships to bring you the Driver I.Q. Driving System. "We see the need to better educate and provide a safer environment for our new drivers using today's technology. The education standards and licensing requirements in most states have remained the same for the last 40 years, while new technological advancements in communications, education and asset tracking have not been available to the new driver until now," says Jason Cooner, C.E.O. of Archetype Corporation. "We can give the teens their freedom, and we are offering parents peace of mind for about a dollar a day." 

Progressive Insurance, Mayfield Village, Ohio, is now conducting a pilot program with 5,000 units and offering participants up to a 25% discount in their insurance rates. The device is easily installed and allows the parents the ability to monitor the new driver's driving habits from any internet portal. "I am alerted on my cell phone when my daughter arrives at school, when she gets home, if she is obeying the speed limit, and I can verify where she is at anytime," says Steven Woods, a father of a young driver. "I can even be alerted automatically when she travels into areas I've asked her to stay out of. I don't see it as spying; I'm simply doing my job as a parent, to protect, educate and provide a safe environment for my child. The alternative is unthinkable for our family." Of course, no teen is going to volunteer to have the device installed. We interviewed one student who recently had the unit installed. "It does give me an excuse to drive safely when my friends want me to horse around while driving. I simply tell them that my car is monitored and I can't. Honestly, it does relieve that peer pressure and allow me to save face with my friends and still drive safely."