Tuesday, April 29, 2008

After School Hours Are Dangerous For Teen Drivers

Most parents only really get concerned about their teen driver children when they head out on the road at night. And rightfully so. That is a very dangerous time. But a recent study shows that the time right after school is also are very high risk time for teen drivers.

This study by AAA indicates that weekday afternoon driving time is just as dangerous for teens as night driving. The researchers studied the number of fatal crashes involving teens between 2002 and 2005. They found that 16 and 17 years olds were involved in almost as many fatal crashes between 3 and 5 pm on weekdays as they were on Friday and Saturday nights between 9 pm and 2 am. There were 1100 weekday fatal accidents and 1237 weekend evening fatal accidents.So what can you as a parent do about this?

Well, here are several suggestions:

1. Establish some specific driving rules with your teen. Be consistent in enforcing both the rules and the consequences when the rules are broken.

2. Impose an absolute ban on cell phone use while your teen is driving. Don’t call them yourself when you know that they are driving.

3. Require that your teen use a seatbelt any and every time they are traveling in any vehicle whether as a driver or a passenger. You must do the same to reinforce the importance of this.

4. Don’t allow your teen driver to carry passengers during the first 3 months or more of driving. Let them get used to being out there on their own before they add the distractions of passengers.

5. Don’t permit your teen to ride with other teen drivers. I know this will be a hard sell in these times of high gas prices but until you know just how safe the other teen driver is, you really should not permit your child to ride with him or her.

6. Make your rules known to other adults in your teen’s life. This can help provide an extra set of eyes when you are not around.

7. Install a GPS monitoring system in your child’s car. When they know that you are watching all of the time, their driving habits will be safer.

To get more safety tips and to find out how you can get a GPS tracking system installed in your child’s car for free, visit my web site at www.TeenDriverInsurance.com/Paramount or call my office at 336-869-3335

1 comment:

Sharon said...

I agree, no cell phones while driving - especially for young drivers, but that even applies to us older drivers as well.

Your teen don't need to ride with a young driver, and your teen doesn't need to drive with a young driver in the car either. There are too many distractions and of course, you know they have to show off. There will only be trouble...

I think if you make your own driving restrictions/rules known to your own teen and discuss them with your teen's friends parents, you not only will save your teens life, but most likely someone elses. Some parents I've talked to don't seem to realize what a responsibility it is to drive and think nothing of their child driving. That's someone my child will not be in a car with. When I got my license, I had no clue...I didn't need my license @ 16 - consequently, I totaled a brand new car. Driving is a privilege not a right, and teens need to get overloaded with all the statistics and have alot of driving time before they are get behind that wheel by themselves, so they do not become one of those statistics.