! field trial to reach young drivers in a sample of Southeastern Michigan high schools was conducted with the support of the Highway Safety Research Institute and the encouragement of the Michigan Association of Secondary School principals utilizing three programs:​ small group discussions with "trigger films," a program of individual driving-development letters with positive recognition for good driving, and a series of large group senior assemblies with high impact safety messages from state and local police. The trial was timed to reach the drivers just before the perennial spring "epidemic" of young driver crashes.

The experimental design includes comparison schools for each of the treated schools and careful longitudinal follow-up of individual driving records to evaluate objectively any effects of the treatments.

The considerations of population size, content of the programs, difficulties, feasibility, and high acceptance of one of the programs are presented in detail. Results await analysis of ongoing data collection from the young driver files.