NEW YORK—Michelin North America Inc. and the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) have achieved a historic milestone in teen-driving safety, according to a Michelin press release.
Michelin and the FIA have persuaded highway safety administrators in all 50 states to include, for the first time, consistent information about tire safety in state-mandated training materials for new drivers, the July 14 release said.
Michelin and the FIA launched their "Beyond the Driving Test" program in late 2014 in an effort to persuade state regulators to include tread depth and tire pressure information in teen driver training materials.
At the time, only a few states included tire safety information in driver training, according to Pete Selleck, chairman and president of Michelin North America.
"In the beginning, Michelin and FIA described our ambition as '50 by '20,' with the hopes of securing those commitments from every state by 2020," Selleck said in the press release.
Selleck thanked organizations such as the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators and the Governors Highway Safety Association for supporting the "Beyond the Driving Test" program.
These groups, he said, helped persuade driving instructors and state governments "to make a change that will save lives in the long run."
Recent federal safety data show that 12 percent of crashes involving inexperienced drivers are related to poor tire maintenance, Michelin said.
To date the "Beyond the Driving Test" program has reached nearly 1,000 driving instructors and more than 200,000 driving students. So far, 26 states have published driver training manuals with tire safety information.
"Beyond the Driving Test" was the most honored corporate public relations campaign in the U.S. in 2016, winning 20 national and regional campaigns as well as the PR News CSR Hall of Fame award, Michelin said.