Canadian teenagers face their greatest risks of severe injury and death while behind the wheel of a car. Combine driving inexperience with a common teenage desire to take risks without thinking them through first and it's a potentially lethal mix. In fact, Transport Canada's 2009 statistics show that while fewer than 5% of Canada's licensed drivers are aged 15-19, fully 9.6% of all licensed drivers killed and 9.9% of those seriously hurt belong to that age group.

In response, most governments across Canada have passed graduated driver licensing laws, as a way of easing young people onto the nation's roads. This measure has helped cut the toll of serious injury and death among young drivers and their passengers. But both SMARTRISK and our sponsor, State Farm, see the role of discussing driving risks with teens and their parents as equally important. After all, if young people accept the reasoning behind the laws, they're more likely to follow them. And despite a downward trend, the loss of 240 teenaged lives on our roads in 2009 is still unacceptably high.

We're thrilled that State Farm is extending its sponsorship with SMARTRISK to help Canadian teenagers further manage their risks while driving. Already very active in teen safe driving programs in the United States, State Farm entered into a partnership with SMARTRISK in fall 2008 to develop a signature Canadian injury prevention response. State Farm is the SMARTRISK No Regrets website presenting partner, helping us to develop an online resource to make participating in this high school leadership program easy to do.

This year's funding sees State Farm joining our current national presenting partner, CN, and Ontario partner, Hydro One, in sponsoring No Regrets Live, the travelling road show for high school students. The funds will help us recruit and train new injury survivors to present the show and update portions of the video, including adding new vignettes. State Farm's support will also help us update the No Regrets website, further our social media efforts and  expand State Farm's Project Ignition program, which helps No Regrets high schools develop driving-related projects in their schools.

Finally, State Farm will help SMARTRISK develop a new parent strategy. Research suggests that, despite what they may think, parents are the greatest influence on their teens' risk-taking behaviour, even more so than their peers. How do we reach parents - and how best can they reach their teens to encourage smart driving behaviours? That's what this new strategy will help us determine.

We are grateful to State Farm for partnering with us in helping teens learn to take smart risks while driving.