Summer Months Are Most Dangerous For Teen Drivers
June 6, 2014
Now that the summer is here, it’s important to remember the dangers faced by teen drivers during the summer months. Traffic fatality statistics have long shown that the death rate for teens rises significantly for teen drivers and their passengers during the summer months. Twenty nine percent of all the teen drivers age 15 to 20 who were killed in traffic collisions in 2012 were killed during the months of June, July, and August. Studies by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) show that the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day is the most dangerous time for teen drivers.
With up to three months of largely free, unsupervised time on their hands, teens have many more chances to get into trouble while driving.
Parents can be pro-active in preventing their child from becoming a summertime driving statistic in a number of ways:
- If this is your teen’s first summer with an operator’s license, consider limiting their driving time.
- Set consistent curfews and enforce them.
- Limit the number of passengers your teen can carry.
- Prevent your teen from riding as a passenger of a teen driver with more than one other passenger.
- Ban not only texting but any type of cell phone use while driving; they must pull over and stop to use a cell phone.
- Ensure that your teen gets plenty of sleep.
- Give the teens chores or suggest a summer job to keep them busy and off the road.
To help ensure that your rules are followed, negotiate a “teen driving contract” with your teen. Make sure that the rules are clear and the consequences for breaking them are well understood.
Disturbing New Study On Teen Driving Behavior
June 5, 2014
Safe Kids Worldwide an organization devoted to child safety along with the General Motors Foundation recently released a survey on teen driving behavior. In talking with 1,000 teens, they discovered, among other things that:
- One in four teens don’t wear seat belts.
- Teens who don’t wear seat belts are more likely to say that they text while driving than those who do.
- Thirty-nine percent of teens say they have ridden with a teen driver who was texting.
- More than half have ridden in a car with a parent who was using a cellphone.
- Forty-nine percent of teens feel unsafe when riding with a teen driver.
Read more: Research Report: Teens in Cars
Ask The Driving School Instructor: Most Dangerous Type Of Road
June 3, 2014
Question: What is the most dangerous type of road to drive on?
Answer: Most people assume, because of the high speeds involved, that interstates or freeways are the most dangerous type of road but they aren’t. The most dangerous type of roads for all drivers but especially for teens are two-lane country or rural roads. Fifty-seven percent of teens killed in traffic crashes die on rural roads.
The reason that rural roads are so dangerous is that they are usually narrow and tend to curve and wind and can also be hilly. These types of roads leave very little room for escape in an emergency. At night they can be especially dangerous because it is hard to see curves or other hazards ahead.
Often drivers drive too fast on these roads and, even though there are usually signs pointing out a curve ahead, they enter the curve at too high a speed and can’t keep the car on the road. If a driver is distracted and drives off the side of the road, there is usually little or no room to recover. Drivers also can become frustrated when stuck behind slower vehicles ahead and that may lead them to take stupid chances such as passing in a no-passing zone where they can’t see the road ahead.
Even Just One Drink Is Too Much
May 21, 2014
Even one drink is to much according to a study by the University of California San Diego that looked at crash data from 1994 to 2011 involving over 570,000 collisions. The study found that drivers who had a Blood Alcohol Content as low as 0.01 percent were 46 times more likely to be blamed in a crash. Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140116084842.htm
Woman Speaks On Consequences Of Drunk Driving Before Entering Prison
May 20, 2014
A young Texas woman who faces 15 years in prison for a drunk driving crash that took the life of a 19 year old man shares her story in hopes that others may learn from her mistake. Read more: Woman shares story before heading to prison for deadly DWI crash