Showing posts with label safe driving and teens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label safe driving and teens. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Teen Driving: Tips and Resources to Help Your Teen With Safe Driving Skills

Thinking about teaching your teen to drive might be giving you anxiety attacks, but with some careful planning and preparation it doesn’t have to. To help make the process a smoother one, it’s a good idea to start talking to your child about driving well before he’s ready to get behind the wheel. Your child is taking cues from you, so you need to model responsible driving skills, too. No matter how experienced of a driver you are, you’ll want to brush up on safe driving rules and laws before you start teaching your teen, as well as prepare some basic lessons for him once it’s time for him to start learning to drive. To learn more tips on how to teach your teen to drive, read these 15 blog articles.

Set a Good Example
Everyone is susceptible to road rage on occasion, and you’ve likely pushed the speed limit once or twice in your life. Think about your driving habits before you start teaching your teen to drive and fix any bad habits now, because your child is watching and learning driving habits years before he gets his learner’s permit. It’s never too early to start talking about defensive driving tips with your teen, and these five blog entries are full of tips to help you exhibit and teach good driving skills for your child.
Know the Rules
Try to think back to when you took the driver’s test to get your own learner’s permit.  Do you remember the questions on the test?  If it’s been 20 years or so since you took the test, you probably need a refresher. After all, a lot of things can change in 20 years! Check out these five blog posts to learn why knowing the rules is necessary before starting driving lessons with your child.
Plan Out Your Lessons
Before you get into the car with your teen it’s a good idea to plan out what you’re going to teach him. Start slowly by making sure that he knows how to adjust and work everything in the car.  Driving down the road in a sudden rain shower is no place to realize that he doesn’t know how to turn on the windshield wipers. These five blog postings will give you more tips on how you can break up your lessons.
Source:  Babysitting Jobs
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Sunday, August 21, 2011

Back to School: Teenagers Driving to School

A special guest post by Safe Teen Driving Club as school is opening throughout the country.

Vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death and injury among 15- to 20-year olds.
Will your teen be driving to school this year?

Do You Know the Facts?
  • 16-year-old teens have higher crash rates than drivers of any other age.
  • They are three times more likely to die in a motor vehicle crash than the average of all drivers.
  • In 2008 some 2,739 drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 died in motor vehicle crashes.
  • About 2 out of every 3 teenagers killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2008 were males (IIHS).
  • Drivers ages 15-20 accounted for 12% of all drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2008 and 14% of all drivers involved in police-reported crashes.
  • 63% of teenage passenger deaths occurred in vehicles driven by another teenager.
  • Among deaths of passengers of all ages, 19% occurred when a teenager was driving (IIHS).
  • 58 percent of teen drivers crash the car in their first year of driving; over 80 percent in the first three years, according to the National Safety Council.
  • The majority (58%) of young people 16 to 20 years old involved in fatal motor vehicle crashes were unbuckled.  (Ref.: NHTSA)
  • The leading Risk Factors are:
-Fatigue
-Driving after dark
-Inexperience, age
-Driver Distraction – iPod, Cell Phone, Radio, Other Passengers
-Failure to buckle up
-Drugs, Alcohol
Teens who get less than eight hours of sleep per night are twice as likely to say they have fallen asleep at the wheel (20 percent) than teens who report getting eight or more hours of sleep per night (10 percent). A national survey of 3,580 students in grades 10-12 found that 36 percent of teens often drive when drowsy to school in the morning.
Ref: Liberty Mutual Insurance and SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions).

Driving between 9PM and 6AM triples the risk of a fatal crash for 16-year-old drivers, a 2003 IIHS report showed. A NC study found “the majority of 16 and 17 year-old drivers' nighttime crashes (nearly 80 percent) occur between 9 p.m. and midnight.”
(Ref: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (www.iihs.org)
What To Do? Get Engaged!
  • Parental involvement is a key contributor to safe driving behavior. Establish clear family  rules for driving.
  • Work with your teens to get more sleep
  • Consider putting them on the bus or driving them to school - even if it is not cool!
  • Vehicle monitoring and reporting has dramatic impact on reducing accident rates – proven in the commercial arena for years.
  • Establishing driving agreements contributes to reduced fatalities (when enforced.)
  • Parents need to enforce Graduated Driver Licensing laws rather than relying on law enforcement.
  • Discussion, awareness and training for teens and parents are key
Be an educated parent, you will have safer teens.
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Visit Safe Driving Club today for more valuable information.
Join me on Facebook  and follow me on Twitter for more information and educational articles on parenting today's teenagers.
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