Transport Canada adds a link
to the I Promise Program.
August 7, 2002, Hamilton, Ontario - The Ministry of Transport recognizes that the success of the program
will depend on public awareness and believes a link from their site
will be an aid towards this. We are grateful for their actions and
hopeful all provincial ministries of transportation will follow
suit. Clearly this is in the interest of all Canadians.
Letter from Transport Canada:
Dear Mr. Direnfeld:
Thank you for your electronic mail message of May 12, 2002, to the
Honourable David M. Collenette, Minister of Transport, regarding the
I
Promise program to reduce accidents involving teenaged drivers. The
Minister has asked me to reply on his behalf, and I apologize for
the delay.
Transport Canada is pleased to provide hyperlinks on its website to
other
websites of transportation organizations such as yours that promote
road
safety. Your program will hopefully encourage parents and caregivers
to
discuss with young people the responsibilities of having a driver's
licence,
the rules of the road and the importance of safety.
It would appear that a key component necessary for the success of
this
program is public awareness. The more people who are aware of the
program,
talk about it and/or use it, the more successful it will be. The
Transport
Canada website generates considerable traffic each month. Hopefully,
the
increased exposure will help improve communications between parents
and
young drivers, as well as reduce collisions and ultimately produce
safer
drivers.
The hyperlink to your home page will be on Transport Canada's
Related Sites
webpage at the following address:
http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/Li/rslink_e.htm under Canada -
Transportation
Organizations. The Transport Canada website also contains a
considerable
amount of safety information related to vehicles and drivers and may
help
parents and new drivers discuss these issues. In addition, the
Related
Sites webpage has several very useful links. Consequently, I would
suggest
that you consider creating a (hyper) link to Transport Canada's road
safety
website from an appropriate location on your website.
I would like to congratulate you on an innovative program with such
a
laudable goal. I wish you all the best in further developing this
program.
Thank you again for writing.
Yours sincerely,
Cameron Summers
Special Assistant - Ontario
About I Promise
The I Promise Program is designed to reduce the risk of youth
related car
crashes and relies on parents as role
models by entering into a family
contract with their young driver for safe
and responsible use of the car.
Key components of the program include a
personalized family agreement,
mutual accountability, trust and a
commitment to safe driving.
We are grateful to The Ontario Neurotrauma
Foundation, which provided a
research grant to the Plan-It Safe research
program of the Children's
Hospital of Eastern Ontario to obtain focus
group feedback from youth,
parents and community members to help form
the I Promise Program.
The I Promise Program is available across
North America.
Gary Direnfeld, MSW, Executive Director
I Promise Program
20 Suter Crescent,
Dundas, Ontario, Canada
L9H 6R5
(905) 628-4847
gary123@sympatico.ca
www.ipromiseprogram.com
