The Parent’s Role In Teaching A Teenager To Drive

This year, National Teen Driver Safety Week runs from October 20 – 26.  That got me thinking that now might be a good time to review the parent’s role in teaching a teen aged child how to drive safely.  This year, the theme of National Teen Driver Safety Week is:  It Takes Two – shared Expectations for Teens And Parents.

Gaining the freedom that comes with learning to drive and obtaining a drivers license is a life changing process for most teens and their parents.   The public schools in North Carolina take on some of this instruction, but most teens generally only receive about 6 hours behind the wheel in drivers’ education programs.  We know for sure that this is not enough time to learn to drive safely.  We advise our parent clients that they should spend at least 100 hours in the passenger seat with their teen behind the wheel learning from them.  If they can increase those hours to 150, then their child will have an even better chance of becoming a safe driver.   These hours of supervised driving are critical to the success of the driving training that a parent provides for his or her child.  This is a safety issue and the best way to insure that your child will be a safe driver is to practice good driving skills when your child rides with you in the car and to pass on your knowledge as the trainer in the passenger seat while your permitted child drives.   

It will also help if you have a good understanding of the statistical realities for inexperienced drivers.  As an example, a recent study found that 75% of serious teen automobile accidents were the result of driver error and that more than half of these wrecks were caused by one of three mistakes made by the teen aged driver.  These three common errors in judgment were:

1.       Driving too fast for road conditions – Teach your child about speed management, not only following the posted speed limits but also learning to make adjustments in speed for weather, traffic or road conditions that demand slower speeds.

2.       Driving while distracted – First of all, emulate non-distracted driving when you drive and your child rides with you.  Help them understand just how quickly a distraction can kill them.  Make it scary and make it personal if you have to but help them understand this concept.

3.       Failure to detect a hazard – Teach your child to constantly scan the road and the area around them for possible hazards.  They must learn to get the big picture by taking in data all around them for purposes of spotting hazards.

To help you with this important teaching process, Clinard Insurance Group has created a driver training book that breaks down what your child needs to know and how you can teach it to them into an organized, step by step approach.  If you and your child keep a log of the hours driven under training, this can help give him or her the incentive needed to learn these skills so that your teen will understand where the two of you are in the training process and will know what is required to finish this training.  Learn more about this training booklet here.

Once your child has completed the training while driving with you under a license permit, then the next step is to have your child test for and obtain a restricted driving license.  At this point your job is not finished.  Do not let up in your supervision of your child at this point.  At this point, it is important that you take the time to learn the rules of the graduated license system in your state and make sure that you consistently apply them to your newly licensed teen driver.  If your teen is anything like mine, then he will tell you that no other parents are making their children follow these rules to the letter of the law.  He will be wrong when he says this and it is your job to make sure that he moves through the graduated licensing process step by step, following all restrictions.   Graduated licensing programs have had a major impact in reducing deaths and injuries for teen drivers in states that have implemented them so please follow that process all the way to the end.

At Clinard Insurance Group, located in Winston Salem, NC, we insure thousands of families all across NC, SC, GA, and TN.  We want to help you with the process of turning your child into a safe driver and have many tools on our website for this purpose.  We can also help you reduce the cost of auto insurance for your teen driver while still helping you get the coverage that you need to feel comfortable with this change.  Please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 for help.

Fatalities For Teen Drivers Are Spiraling Downward Thanks To Tougher Licensing Rules

For parents of teenagers nearing driving age, there should be great comfort in the report released last week by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and Highway Loss Data Institute.  The results of this study indicate a very positive step forward for nervous parents.  This report, which studied the time frame from 1996 through 2010 indicates a dramatic drop in automobile accident death rates for teen drivers of all ages.

The drop in fatality rates for teen drivers over the past 15 years can be directly attributed to tougher licensing restrictions by many of the states.  Teens are having to wait longer to become eligible for a license and are also being required to show that they have received more practice driving with a supervisor as well.   As you would imagine, this report proves that states with the toughest graduated licensing rules have experienced the greatest drop in teen driver fatalities.  Here in NC we have pretty stringent requirements both in terms of licensing age and in terms of hours of practice required for a teen to be eligible for a license.  By contrast, South Dakota allows a teen to obtain a license three months after his or her 14^th birthday.  If that state were to increase the driving age to 17, it is estimated that the state would see a 32% drop in fatal crashes among young drivers.

The graduated licensing rules typically aim at 5 specific areas of training or privilege.  They are the age at which a teenager can obtain a driving permit and start practicing with a parent or other driving supervisor, the number of hours of driving practice that must be completed before a teen is eligible, the age at which the teen can test for and receive a license, the restrictions on night driving, and the restrictions on passengers in their age group allowed in the car.  North Carolina, for instance, has steadily increased their restrictions in each of these categories over the past decade.

The numbers from this report are very encouraging.  The death rate fell for each age group studied.  16 year old drivers had a drop of 68% in fatalities.  17 year old drivers had a 59% decrease while 18 year olds had a 52% decrease.   Even 19 year old drivers show a positive change as well with the death rate for 19 year olds dropping by 47%.

While this is great news there is some bad news on the horizon.   The preliminary data from the first 6 months of 2011 shows an increase in fatalities for 16 and 17 year old drivers of 11%.  Teen driver fatality data is subject to some temporary swings so this may be a blip on the radar or it may be a trend indicating that fatalities are once again on the rise.  The widespread use of smart phones and texting by teen drivers may be playing a role in this disturbing new upward trend in deaths.

Clinard Insurance Group, located in Winston Salem NC has made it a part of our mission for many years to help parents of teen drivers with training tools, information, and exceptionally low teen driver insurance rates for the new drivers in their household.  Please take a moment to check out our teen driver information web page.  There are some free tools there that might help you save your child’s life.   If you have questions about the NC graduated licensing program or about teen driver insurance, please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557.

Texting Teens and Car Insurance – A Very Expensive Habit

Car insurance rates for teen drivers are much more expensive than car insurance for experienced drivers.  This is because young drivers need time to develop their skills behind the wheel and to learn good judgment when operating a vehicle.  Texting adds an additional layer of risk for these young drivers.

Many teenagers use texting as their main form of interaction with their friends.  They use texts to chat, make plans and even just waste time when they are bored.  Over time this behavior can lead to what I call chronic texting.    These chronic texting teens are always on the alert for an incoming text.  These incoming texts always trump any other form of communication or activity that the teenager is engaged in at the time.  Who among us has not experienced the frustration of losing your child’s attention in the middle of a conversation as their phone buzzes to announce an incoming text.  Their reactions are almost so automatic that they don’t even know they are doing it.  They look down at their phones and for a moment they have simply forgotten everything else in their immediate environment.  The text takes top priority for all of their attention.  Now this behavior is annoying enough when it happens in the middle of a conversation with you or at a restaurant.  But if it happens while they are driving, then we are dealing with extreme danger for them and all drivers around them.  Combine chronic texting with a teenager’s lack of driving experience and you have a recipe for personal disaster on the highway.

A Miami Dade jury recently awarded $8.8 million to the family of a woman killed in a crash caused by a teenager who was speeding and texting.    The boy’s phone records show an outgoing text from his phone at 8:19 pm.  The paramedics were called to the accident at 8:21 pm.  Think what this means; if your child is driving and texting and causes an accident, the court is going to know that your child was texting while driving.  Do you think this information might influence the judgment amount against your child and by inference you, the owner of the vehicle?  Yes it will.  This information is going to mean a lot more money out of your pocket.  So if the safety angle isn’t enough to get you to establish some hard rules with your teen driver, maybe the financial argument will hold some sway.    This is serious stuff, people are dying out there!

Any parent with assets to lose whose teenager is driving should seriously consider buying higher liability limits on his or her auto insurance policy.  You may even want to add a personal umbrella policy to your portfolio of insurance policies for limits above those allowed on the auto policy.  I would advise every parent with a teen driver to adopt a two pronged approach to this problem.  First of all, talk to your child and help them understand that the phone may not be used at all while they are driving.  Model this behavior yourself; your children learn from your behavior.  If you have young children be aware that they are learning from you now so put down that phone while you drive.  Secondly, have a conversation with your insurance agent and buy as high of a liability insurance limit as you can afford to protect your assets from the risk of your young drivers on your policy.

At Clinard Insurance Group, we are committed to helping our clients become informed insurance buyers.  If you would like help with your teen driver car insurance, or if you would like a quote on your auto insurance, please visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com, or call us, toll free at 877-687-7557.  We have a number of free tools for parent of teen drivers.  To learn more about them, please visit our teen driver insurance page.

Teen Driver Safety – Summer Months Are High Risk

The Summer months are a high risk time for teen drivers. Parents must be more vigilant during this time to insure the safety of their teen aged drivers. There are several reasons why the Summer months present special challenges for parents of teen drivers.

First of all, many parents tend to raise the curfew times during Summer months. I know I have done this. This is a good thing to do as your child earns your trust and has begun to gain some experience behind the wheel, but as you do this, keep in mind that there are some tipping points where extended curfews may put your child at a greater risk. Try to decide exactly what your teen will be doing with this extra time and determine if the rewards are worth the risks.

Another reason that Summer is so dangerous is that teens now have more and more nights to do things without school in the morning forcing them to come home earlier. Over time this opportunity can lead to some dangerous behavior from teen drivers.

Even during the day the danger for teen drivers is increase during Summer. This is because teens have more time to drive around without specific purpose. While it is great for them to log more hours behind the wheel and gain experience, it is best done if they are driving for a purpose besides time wasting.

I highly recommend that each parent consider getting a GPS device installed in their teen driver’s car to help them with the temptations that driving brings on. You can find out more about these devices by visiting www.teensurance.com.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we help thousands of families with their auto insurance all across North Carolina. We work hard to help our customers become informed insurance consumers and we want all of you with teen drivers to have the tools that you need to help keep your teen drivers safe. Please visit our teen driver web site or call us, toll free at 877-687-7557 for more help with your auto insurance, home insurance, business insurance, or life insurance.

This article was pulled from source information which can be found in its entirety at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.