An interventional study of Online Vehicle and Driver Safety Education and Online Driver Skills Training in Risk Reduction Behavior, Injuries and Accident, Traffic, sponsored by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 16 Years to 17 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-04-06.
Sponsored by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention
This study will test the effectiveness of different types of driver training interventions for reducing young new driver crash risk early after licensure.
Motor vehicle crashes remain high in young drivers, despite graduated driver licensing laws that put restrictions on driving and delay licensure. Typically, data trends show that crash risk is highest right after licensure, in the early months of independent driving. Additional studies of different driver training interventions have shown some evidence that it is possible to improve skills and reduce crashes early in licensure for young drivers. However, Pennsylvania and many other states have no professional training requirements for young drivers.
This study will test the effectiveness of different types of driver training programs for reducing young new driver crash risk early after licensure.
Up to 1,200 adolescent learner drivers in Pennsylvania will be recruited for this trial (to get up to 1,000 evaluable participants). Participants will be recruited through Primary Care Clinics at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and from the surrounding community to take part in a study that will continue through the learner phase and for 6 months after licensure. Participants will give informed consent and be asked to complete some baseline surveys and cognitive tasks, and a virtual driving assessment in-person during a clinical or other visit. All will receive care-as-usual.
Participants will also be followed through the learner phase with a smartphone app that monitors driving trips and monthly surveys that can be completed at home. In the learner phase, participants will randomly receive one of three interventions. One group of participants will receive professional behind-the-wheel training with a local driving school instructor. Another group will receive a modern online driver training course. Another group will receive an online vehicle and driver safety education. Participants randomly assigned to the behind-the-wheel training group will be required to download and use an app to log and track their driving practice hours. Use of this app will be optional for participants randomly assigned to the other groups.
After the learner phase, participants will be given an online hazard skills test, online surveys, and second virtual driving assessment, and state license examination and will be followed for 6 months after licensure, with online surveys at 2, 4, and 6 months after licensure, and with continued driver trip monitoring through the smartphone app.
291 studies on the registry are indexed under Risk Reduction Behavior; 39 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 1,300 is above the median of 201 across 250 interventional studies indexed under Risk Reduction Behavior.
Browse Risk Reduction Behavior studies →Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is the lead sponsor of 489 studies on the registry; 90 are open to participants now.
Of its 28 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 22 (79%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Participants in this arm will receive care as usual, and also complete an online video training module on vehicle and driver safety, with a short quiz at the end to determine compliance. The training content will not teach driving skills, as in the other online driver training arm. It requires up to two hours to complete and can be done from any internet-connected computer (at home, at school, etc.).
Behavioral: Online Vehicle and Driver Safety Education
Participants in the Online Driver Skills Training arm will complete an online driver skill training program known as Accelerated Curriculum to Create Effective Learning (ACCEL) for novice drivers. It requires up to two hours to complete and can be done from any internet-connected computer (at home, at school, etc.).
Behavioral: Online Driver Skills Training
Participants in the Behind-the-Wheel training arm will receive professional behind-the-wheel training course delivered in-person on the road by a local driving school instructor through our partnership with a local driving school Coastline Academy or licensed driver training schools subcontracted by Coastline Academy.
Behavioral: Behind-the-Wheel Driver Training
This online video education program provides education in vehicle and driver safety (e.g. vehicle maintenance, adjusting car seats and seatbelts). This online training will take up to 2 hours to complete and will have a short quiz at the end to determine compliance with this online training.
The online driver training is the Accelerated Curriculum to Create Effective Learning (ACCEL) is designed to enhance the ability to anticipate, recognize and respond to hazards and to maintain attention to the road. The training is delivered online via a computer and can be done from home or at a school or other site that has a computer with internet access. It requires up to two hours to complete, and will be hosted on a platform that will track progress and completion through the training (such as accuracy, duration in modules, time to complete) and a short quiz will be provided at the end to assess learning.
The professional behind-the-wheel training course will be conducted in-person, delivered by local driving school partner Coastline Academy or licensed driver training schools subcontracted by Coastline Academy. The curriculum consists of 6 hours of training with assigned practice between lessons, and meets Pennsylvania and national standards. Post-lesson forms completed by the instructors will record adherence and consistency (intervention fidelity).
Hard Braking Events
For Aim 1 and 3, the primary outcome is the number of hard braking events per 100 miles driven during the first 2 months post-licensure, as measured via the Way-to-Drive App.
Time frame: Measured over the 6 months post-licensure at the end of the study (about month 18-24), assessed at 2 and 6 months post-licensure, with primary outcome at 2 months post-licensure.
Pass rate on the licensure exam
The primary outcome in Aim 2 and 3 will be the pass rate on the first licensure exam attempt.
Time frame: Measured at the time of the license examination, post-intervention (in about month 8-18).
Phone Use While Driving
For Aim 1 and 3: minutes of handheld phone use per hour of driving, as measured via the Way-to-Drive App.
Time frame: Measured over the 6 months post-licensure at the end of the study (about month 18-24), assessed at 2 and 6 months post-licensure.
Speeding
For Aim 1 and 3: Proportion of drive time \>10 miles over the posted speed limit, as measured via the Way-to-Drive App.
Time frame: Measured over the 6 months post-licensure at the end of the study (about month 18-24), assessed at 2 and 6 months post-licensure.
Crash Involvement
For Aim 1 and 3: Self-reported involvement in crashes as a driver (binary yes/no) as captured by a question in our follow-up driver experience questionnaire: response options are 1) none; 2) one; 3) two; 4) more than 2. This item has been used in previous studies as part of the modified Driver Behavior Questionnaire (mDBQ).
Time frame: Measured at 2-, 4- and 6-month follow-up post-licensure (about month 18-24).
Risky driving behavior
For Aim 1 and 3: Risky Driving factor score as captured through self-reported responses on the modified driver behavior questionnaire, in which participants rate how often they engage in 11 different risk-taking behaviors while driving on a 6-point scale from "Never" to "Nearly all the time."
Time frame: Measured at 2-, 4- and 6-month follow-up post-licensure (within about month 18-24).
Virtual Driving Assessment performance
For Aim 2 and 3: the class of driving behavior assessed via performance on a virtual driving assessment.
Time frame: Measured at the time of the license examination, post-intervention (in about month 8-18).
Change in Virtual Driving Assessment performance
For Aim 2 and 3: the change in virtual driving assessment performance class assessed via performance on a virtual driving assessment pre- and post-intervention.
Time frame: Measured at the time of the license examination, post-intervention (in about month 8-18).
Number of license exam attempts
For Aim 2 and 3: the number of attempts taken to pass the licensure exam.
Time frame: Measured at the time of the license examination, post-intervention (in about month 8-18).
Plan to share: No
Started Aug 2024 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Dec 2027, 40 months after the start.
Of 167 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Risk Reduction Behavior, half reached primary completion within 25 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 13 and three quarters within 42. This study's planned 40 months is above that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 169 studies reached it within 25 months; a quarter within 13 and three quarters within 46.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
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