Crash SiteÔ is a tailored, impaired driving prevention CD-ROM-based program for high school students developed with grant support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The program consists of an interactive, multimedia CD-ROM as well as teacher instructor and parent-teen communication guides.

    The most frequent cause of death (35%) among people aged 15-20 is motor vehicle crashes. Almost 40% of these deaths involve alcohol (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1998). The goal of Crash SiteÔ is to reduce the prevalence of impaired teenage driving through an interactive format that educates teens about the consequences of impaired driving, resulting in lasting behavior change.

    Crash SiteÔ was recently awarded first place in the 2002 Annual Education Software Review Awards (EDDIE Awards) in the High School - Health category. Each year, the EDDIE Awards recognize innovative and content-rich programs from around the world that are appropriate for use by educators to augment the classroom curriculum and improve teacher productivity.

    In the CD-ROM portion of the curriculum, students solve the mystery of an impaired driving crash in which they are "involved" by gathering clues from a lawyer, police detective, peer, counselor, and doctor. Along the way, teens input their own personal risk factors and see how they might fare under true-to-life circumstances. Compelling video interviews with real impacted peers and parents offer a personal glimpse into life after an impaired driving crash.

    The Crash SiteÔ teacher instructor manual provides accompanying classroom activities to do with your class, and the parent-teen communication guide is designed for teens to use with their parents at home to facilitate discussions about impaired driving.

    Inflexxion is unique in that we are required to extensively research, test and evaluate all of our products in a clinical field trial before they are made available to the public. Input and feedback received from these field trials is incorporated into the final version of the program. Preliminary results from the Crash SiteÔ field trial show a significant decrease in teenagers’ weekend drinking (defined as Thursday, Friday, Saturday).

    The Inflexxion staff consists of doctoral level psychologists, masters level social workers, masters of science in public health, and masters of science in psychology who conceptualize and develop all of Inflexxion’s multimedia-based products for healthcare education and prevention. To create Crash SiteÔ, the Inflexxion team gathered extensive input from teens, teachers and parents, and consulted with numerous leading experts in the field of impaired driving prevention.

    Between the CD-ROM program and suggested activities in the parent-teen and teacher guides, the Crash SiteÔ curriculum can easily fill up to 6 to 10 hours of time if used by teachers in a classroom setting. However, the program can be completed in less time if necessary. If used at home by teens and parents on their own, the program takes about two 45 minute sessions to complete. There are six different endings to the CD-ROM, different for each teen. In our studies, teens responded well to receiving impaired driving education in this interactive, individualized format.