Turning Point Products

The educational and promotional materials developed for the Turning Point: Roadway Work Zone Safety for New Drivers campaign are listed and described below. The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), under contract to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), has developed these materials principally for driving instructors, but also for safety educators, parents, teens and other stakeholders. What’s at stake is the safety of our young drivers on the nation’s roadways—particularly where construction, repair, maintenance or utility work is under way.

  • Video: Turning Point: Some Decisions Last a Lifetime—aims to connect with teens emotionally and help shape their attitudes about safe driving—particularly in terms of the hazards posed by driving in roadway work zones. Introduced by Turning Point spokesperson Dominique Dawes, the video features a reality-based storyline that shows young drivers the real impact of their driving actions on human lives, especially their own. After we hear a few teens briefly describe their work zone driving experiences, “Eric” relates the kind of driving that he and girlfriend “JJ” enjoy. It’s marked by going to concerts and “making the rounds”—always while enjoying their music. Tragically, it ends when their focus on music becomes a fatal distraction in a work zone, where margins for error are particularly narrow. An Information Sheet describes the video presentation in detail. The Instructor’s Guide describes how to use the video in the classroom. (Total running time: 11:00)
  • Interactive Driving CD-ROM: Turning Point: Work Zones from Behind the Wheel—is an interactive CD-ROM-based program that enables teen drivers to practice hazard recognition and decision-making skills in simulated work zone situations. The interactive program covers scenarios set in two typical driving environments—“on the highway” and “around town.” A sense of realism is achieved through full-screen video, shot through the windshield, rearview and side-view mirrors of a moving car. In each environment, teens are presented with a series of scenes where they must either spot work zone hazards or recognize work zone indicators and decide on a course of action. Feedback on their choices comes from viewing the consequences of their decisions and hearing from the peer narrator, who—like many teens—isn’t always kind! And, just as in life, the teens are scored on their performance. Turning Point: Work Zones from Behind the Wheel combines real-life driving situations with the motivational qualities of a gaming environment to raise awareness and prepare teens to navigate safely through the work zones they’ll encounter around town and on the highway. The Instructor’s Guide provides suggestions for using this interactive tool and detailed commentary to guide instructors’ discussions of it with their students.
  • Resources CD-ROM — Work Zone Safety Awareness & Training Resources is a searchable database on CD-ROM containing scores of literature items and other resources related to roadway work zone safety for new drivers. Driving instructors and others may increase their knowledge about work zone safety as well as obtain materials for use in instructing new, teenage drivers. The database includes fields for title, author, publisher, media type, development date, description of resource, and contact information. The CD-ROM also contains information about the Turning Point campaign, campaign contacts, and a message from spokesperson Dominique Dawes. Included too are links to other organizations with an important role in work zone safety for new drivers. Further, it contains selected videos and a safe-driving pocket guide. Finally, under “Tools,” it has more than two dozen printable instructor resources: the Instructor’s Guide and the Turning Point Campaign Information brochure; the complete set of course evaluation forms; the posters, stickers and bookmarks; the ten individual information sheets; the Work Zone Primer PowerPoint presentation; and the SPOT Exercises Answer Key (designed to aid instructors in discussing the interactive driving program with their students).
  • Instructor Materials —These materials include the Instructor’s Guide, Work Zone Primer PowerPoint presentation, Turning Point Campaign Information brochure / individual Information Sheets, Pre- and Post-Course Quizzes and other evaluation forms, and the SPOT Exercises Answer Key—all tools for the instructor to use in teaching roadway work zone safety to new drivers.
    • The Instructor’s Guide presents Turning Point teaching objectives, course outline, description of Tool Kit items and tips for using them, instructional approach and techniques, student and course evaluation information and forms, and other useful information about program content and presentation.
    • The Work Zone Primer PowerPoint presentation is a tutorial for instructors on roadway work zones—describing their types, functions, parts, common terms, typical hazards and other characteristics. Drivers ed instructors should know more about work zones than the average motorist or their own students. In addition to providing individual instructors with that “edge,” Work Zone Primer may also be presented to groups of instructors, parents or (when appropriate) teens.
  • Ten Information Sheets focus on:
    • the overall Turning Point Campaign
    • Turning Point Messages
    • Work Zone Facts
    • the Interactive Driving Program (“Work Zones from Behind the Wheel”) on CD-ROM
    • the Turning Point Video (“Some Decisions Last a Lifetime”) on DVD
    • the Work Zone Safety Awareness & Training Resources on CD-ROM
    • this Work Zone Driver Website
    • the Turning Point Posters (and bookmarks and stickers)
    • the Turning Point Spokesperson
    • Distracted Driving as a special issue

These illustrated info sheets are directed to both educators and parents. They describe and promote their specific subjects and serve as individualized advertisements of the Turning Point campaign. Driving schools and instructors may use them to highlight key aspects of their instruction program for prospective students and their parents.

  • The Pre-Course Quiz and Post-Course Quiz provide a measuring stick for what teenage driving students know about driving in roadway work zones as they come into the driver’s ed program, and how much they learn about them from the Turning Point curriculum. The quizzes’ multiple-choice questions cover work zone facts, sign recognition and interpretation, and driving decisions. The post quiz also includes some questions addressing attitudinal changes. Answer sheets, an answer key, and a course score sheet support the use of the quizzes. A course evaluation form is designed to capture educators’ feedback about the curriculum, course, and materials.
  • The SPOT Exercises Answer Key supplements the instructors’ use of the interactive driving program by providing the “official, correct answers” to the spot exercises. Instructors can use these in their discussions with students following completion of the program.
  • Collateral Materials —Additional instructional materials draw attention to the campaign and display Turning Point messages and information in the classroom and other high-visibility locations. The four posters, two stickers and bookmark not only remind viewers but also inform them through their visual and textual messages and instructional content.

The posters are designed to be displayed on school bulletin boards, classroom walls, store fronts, and students’ bedroom walls. They are of two types: the series of three You Will Be Missed “message posters” and the Know the Signs “instructional poster.” The former challenge teens with the provocative notion of missing out on the activities and associations that teens cherish. They alert teens to the terrible toll resulting from work zone crashes, offer the Turning Point messages as preventive measures, cite the participation of campaign spokesperson Dominique Dawes, and refer teens to this web site. The single Know the Signs poster is loaded with examples of the instructions and other information that work zone signs, arrow panels and other devices convey to drivers. Studying this poster is a lesson in itself.

Two stickers display tongue-in-cheek quips that nonetheless express indisputable truths—that speeding and being distracted in work zones can prove fatal. Whether affixed to car bumpers, students’ backpacks, bulletin boards or school lockers, confront observers with the challenge of preventing work zone crashes.

Three bookmarks, echoing the You Will Be Missed posters, alert teens to the terrible toll from work zone crashes, offer them Turning Point’s messages as a prescription, and refer them to this web site. The bookmarks also reinforce the Know the Signs poster by providing a sampling of the work zone signs and devices presented there.

Together, the Turning Point products comprise educational Tool Kits designed for drivers’ education programs and driving instructors in public/private schools and commercial driving schools.

To get on the Turning Point distribution list and order one or more Tool Kits, contact Brad Sant or Omar Lopez at 202-289-4434 or at olopez@artba.org.

Updated: 12/11/2008

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