Afternoon School Hours A Dangerous Time For Teen Drivers

After School Hours Are Dangerous For Teen Drivers

If you are like me, you have always been concerned about your teen driver children when they head out on the road at night. And you are right to be worried about them driving at night. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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/Clinard

With Teen Drivers.... Speed Kills

Prom season is coming in the next few weeks. This is a time of the year that teen-related car accidents peak. I hope more than ever, you are being vigilant in the safety of your teen driver.

In this month's blog, I am focusing on SPEED and what happens when your teen makes a mistake. Speeding is the most common reason why teens cause accidents and the results of these accidents destroy families' futures.



Speed Kills!

It amazes me when I see kids speeding around town as if they are bullet proof and invincible.

All too often, this is why we lose kids in car accidents. Speeding is the number one cause for teen driver deaths and it's because they really don't know better.

Once they get behind the wheel, they think they can control their car at any speed and tend to push the limits. The real trouble comes when they get into a situation at a high speed and can't react quickly enough. Even professional car racers sometimes can't react quickly enough at high speeds.

When you add speed to any situation, you have what is called the "multiplier" effect. This means that the faster you approach an object, the less time you have to correctly react, so the speed of your reaction needs to be multiplied.

So, how can you make sure your teen doesn't speed? Of course, it's up to you to make certain they don't and there are a couple of things you should consider.

First, have a discussion with your teen. Explain the dangers of speeding. Search for articles on the web of stories of how kids were killed from speeding. Believe me, there are plenty.

Second, set guidelines. You should have a "Parent/Teen Driver" contract signed by both you and your teen. This will make it clear that there are rules about driving and if your teen breaks those rules, there will be consequences. Be sure to spell out the exact consequences for each type of behavior that is not acceptable.

Third, get a GPS monitoring device. In my opinion, this is the best thing invented since sliced bread. This system works so well because the teen understands that if he or she speeds, you will know about it. What a great deterrent! I have installed this in my 16 year old daughter's car and after the first couple of speed alerts she has slowed down. It gives me peace of mind to know when and where she is driving and just how fast she is going. If you would like to see a news story done on me and my daughter about this amazing tool, go to http://www.wxii12.com/video/15415918/index.html.

By taking these three steps, you can help ensure your teen is driving safely. If not, your Parent/Teen Driver contract will allow you to exercise the consequences.

I can provide you with all of these tools on my Teen Driver website. I highly recommend you utilize them. You can visit my web site at www.teendriverinsurance.com/clinard.