"Trunking"- The Latest Danger to Teens!

Just when you thought you've heard it all...

As I was doing my research for this month's issue of my Driver’s Seat e-newsletter, I came across an article about the latest killer of teens.

We all know that car accidents are the number one killer of teens in the US. Now there is a trend going across the country that is adding to the danger of a teen behind the wheel and it's referred to as "Trunking".

As a teen, I remember hearing about kids in school that would climb into a trunk to sneak into a drive-in movie. Of course, I would never partake in such an act. But today, now that the drive-in movie is obsolete, there's another reason why kids are doing this.

Almost every state in the country now has laws limiting the number of passengers during the first few years of a teen driver's experience. These laws were passed to reduce the distractions in the car that have been proven to cause so many accidents. In order to circumvent these laws, kids are now packing themselves in the trunk of the car to be able to go with their friends. The worst part is that they will stay in the trunk while being driven all over town and even beyond.

The dangers are obvious to us and include suffocation, carbon monoxide poisoning, heat exposure, freezing, being crushed or thrown out of the car as a result of an accident. You can just imagine how dangerous this could be for your child.

So what do you do? First explain the dangers and then define the consequences/punishment of this type of action. If your child is guilty, take away driving privileges and inform the parents’ of all the involved kids. You'll also want to pass this article on to other parents, just to let them know what kids are up to these days, so they can proactively counsel against it.

To sign up for a free subscription to my e-newletter, Driver’s Seat, visit my website at www.TeenDriverInsurance.com/Clinard and register for VIP Access. You’ll also be able to learn more about you can best protect your family.

Do You Know Your Child's Driving Personality?

We all know our children right? I mean we really know our children? But do we know just how they will act as drivers once they are out on the road without our supervision? Will they be risk takers, will they be easily distracted, will they over cautious or even fearful of certain situations? If you could know the answers to these questions with certainty, could you better prepare you teen driver and perhaps save his or her life?

I think so. And there is a way to know. The Teensurance safety beacon GPS program has an additional feature that will allow your child to take an online personality assessment in about 45 minutes time. The test can be graded and the results will show you just what types of dangerous behaviors your child is most likely to participate in. And they will help you understand areas of training where you need to put the most emphasis before you let your child out there on the open road.

I think every parent of a teen driver should arm themselves with every advantage to help keep their child safe and alive. A personality assessment is just one more tool. Taking your child through this process will also show them just how serious you are about their safety as a driver.

If you would like more information about the personality assessment for your teen driver, please click here.

I have additional free information and help for you at my teen driver web site at www.TeenDriverInsurance.com/Clinard.

Teens, Cars and Cellphones - A Deadly Combination

We have all heard about how dangerous it is to drive while talking on your cell phone. I have even seen people trying to text while they are driving! Man...now that is scary even for the most experienced drivers to be doing.

Now, think of that same thing happening with a teen driver behind the wheel! Yikes. Take a look at this study that shows how much teens are ignoring laws and regulations that limit cell phone use while driving.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,364453,00.html

Parents, we have to take extra steps to make sure that our teens are safe drivers. With the popularity of cell phones, texting, and social networking such as MySpace and Facebook, our teens are more accessible to each other and are also more distracted drivers than ever before. We need to take action now to do whatever we can to keep them safe.

Please visit my website http://www.teendriverinsurance.com/clinard for tips and advice on how you can help your teen be a safer driver. Please sign up for VIP access in order to get my monthly Ezine for parents of teen drivers and get access to my free reports on steps that you, as a parent, can take to help make your teen a safer driver. Help us make it a safe summer for our teens.

Your Teen Needs A Car - Which One Do You Buy?

Many times we are asked this question by our clients with teen drivers so I thought I would address this issue in today’s blog. Some parents fall prey to “I just want the best for my child” syndrome and in their efforts to do the “best” thing for their child, they may in fact do the “worst”.

When shopping for a first car for your child there are several considerations that should rise to the top of the pile for you. They are:

What car will help keep my child safe?.... and,
What car will keep my insurance rates low?

I can tell you that if you left it to your teen to choose the car then these two considerations would probably fall to the bottom of the list.

The odds are that your child will be involved in some type of accident in his or her first year of driving. That is why your teen’s first car should be one that is safe for them and one that won’t hurt your pocketbook in the event of a minor bump up.

Let’s start with safety. Here you want to find a vehicle that is large and slow. Don’t get one that is so old that you skip the anti-lock brakes and airbags though. Underpowered is good as well. Now I know that in these times of climbing gas prices you might be tempted to choose a smaller car for your child. I would encourage you not to fall into that trap. Think of your child’s first car as a temporary solution for say a year or two until they become more a more competent driver. With that in mind, the poor gas mileage, while painful will be a short term trade off to keep them safe while they are in their most dangerous stage. In addition, today’s higher gas prices are driving down the resale value of larger used cars so you can make up some of the gas cost on the purchase price.

One more note about safety. Do not purchase a SUV type vehicle for your child. Any vehicle that has a high center of gravity will increase the chances of a rollover accident tremendously. Young drivers simply have not had the experience that they need to judge speed going into tight turns and these vehicles are very unforgiving of this mistake.

Now, how do you keep the costs of insurance lower? Well, as soon as your child becomes a primary operator on a vehicle, their inexperienced operator rates will go up, but you can minimize the cost by purchasing an inexpensive first vehicle for your child. This way you can avoid having to purchase collision insurance on this vehicle. You need to be sure that if the vehicle is totaled and you need to replace it that you can afford to do so. When my son banged up his first car in two different accidents that were his fault, I took the car to a local body repair shop and asked them to repair it enough to keep the car safe and legal. While it might have cost thousands to repair the dings and dents, making it safe and legal in each case cost me about $300.

If you would like more information about keeping your teen driver safe, visit my web site by clicking here.

Teen Drivers - One Policy Or Two?

One question that I am often asked by parents of teen drivers is whether or not they should put the child’s car on their policy or if they should have their agent write a separate policy just for their child. Each situation is a little bit different of course but in general the answer is that you should put insure your teen driver and their car on your policy.

There are several reasons why this is a better strategy. Some of these reasons are to reduce the cost of your auto insurance for your teen driver and some are to better protect your assets. I am making the assumption that the vehicle is titled in your name and that your teen driver is still a minor.

Reason #1 - Multi-car discount. Most every policy allows a discount on your auto insurance if you have more than one vehicle on the policy. This discount can be as high as 15% in some states. If you put the teenager and his or her car on their own policy, you will be passing up this discount.

Reason #2 - Multi-policy discount. By now most insurance consumers are aware that they will have a lower rate on their home and their auto policies if they purchase both from the same insurance carrier. However, if you write your teen driver on a separate policy, most insurance companies will not extend the multi-policy discount to that new policy. This means you will be giving up another valuable discount which in most states will run as high as 15% or even more.

Reason #3 - Access to higher limits. When your teen starts driving, the risks of an accident increase. Not only do teens have a much higher rate of accidents, their accidents generally involve much greater bodily injury and property damage losses. This is the time that you should purchase the highest liability limits that you can afford. Here’s a simple test: Check your policy for the limit for bodily injury coverage. Now ask yourself if that limit exceeds the value of your home. If not, then every time your teenager hits the road, you might be putting your home on the line. Now, if you choose to write a separate policy for your teen driver, in most states you will find the limits of liability that you can purchase on that vehicle will be limited. In NC that limit is generally $100,000 per person for bodily injury coverage. By keeping your teen’s vehicle insured on your policy, you will be able to provide higher limits of coverage on that vehicle.

Reason #4 - Insurance Score issues. In most states the insurance rate on a policy is directly related to the “Insurance Score” of the policyholders. The “Insurance Score” varies by company in terms of how it is calculated but in general the insurance company is looking at your credit score and other parameters. Generally speaking the insurance scores for an adult will be many times better than those for a teen left to stand on their own. This means that by keeping your child and their vehicle on your policy, you can lend them the support of your superior insurance score to keep the rate on their vehicle lower.

You should always check with your agent before making the final decision about how to insure your teen driver but in almost all cases the choice is clear. Keep your teen driver and their car insured on your policy.

If you would like more information about teen driving safety and insurance issues, please click here.

When Teaching Your Teen To Drive - Look In The Mirror

When most teenagers reach about 14 years of age, they begin to think about driving. Obviously some children dream about this more than others but what is important to you as a parent, is how they might imagine themselves as a driver. Where do they get their persona as a driver? Where do they learn habits?

The answer is, they learn a lot from watching you drive. They will pick up your good and your bad habits and that is why as a parent, you must really monitor your own driving while your young teens are in the car. You should begin to model good driving behavior and even talk about that behavior with your children.

Here is a short list of the Don’ts:

While your young teens are in the car, don’t:

· Eat and drive. Make sure that they see you giving your full attention to your driving.

· Talk on your phone while driving. I know this one is hard to break but when your child tries this while driving it is the equivalent of having them drink a few stiff ones and then try driving. It is also illegal in NC for a teen driver to use the phone while driving.

· Run the yellow light. Teach your teens not to gamble with yellow lights. Their judgment is not as well developed as yours and this behavior can end in tragedy.

· Follow too closely. This is something you shouldn’t do at any time but when your child is in the car they will get a sense for what is the correct following distance. Show them by leaving enough space between you and the car in front of you.

· Drive aggressively. Again, they will model what you do. Teach them to be a courteous and respectful driver. It might make you late a few times but what is that to saving their life.

· Speed. Your children should respect the speed limit. This will save them money in tickets and attorney’s fees, but it will probably also save their life. 33% of teen driver fatalities are due to excessive speed.

Ok, enough with the negatives. Here are a few things you should do when your teens ride with you:

· Always use your seatbelt. And always insist that all passengers wear theirs as well.

· Use turn signals and practice “accurate” driving. Talk to your teens about this.

· Keep your car maintained and the windshield clean. The other day I had to drive my daughter’s car and I was appalled at the mess on her windshield. It was downright dangerous and I realized that I had never spoken with her about this subject. This goes for checking tire wear and tire pressure as well.

· Come to a complete stop at all stop signs

· Slow down in bad weather. Tell you teens that you are driving a bit slower and leaving more distance from the car in front today because the bad weather makes the driving that much more dangerous.

These are just a few tips that you can use. I’m sure you can think of even more to help your child become a safer driver so that you can get through this time in your life without a tragedy.

For more help on teen driving safety, please visit my web site at www.TeenDriverInsurance.com/clinard

Put Your Child Through The Paces - while you are in the car

The drivers education in-car training provided by our public school systems is really only a starting point for teaching your teen to drive safely. I recommend no less than 100 hours driving time for your child with the parent in the passenger seat before you let them out on their own.

One of the things that you should do when teaching your child how to drive is teach them how to deal with stressful and dangerous situations while you are there to talk them through it. For example, I advise that you take them to an abandoned, low traffic road and with them observing in the passenger seat, you drive car off the road and talk them through the process of getting the car back on the road in a safe manner. Too often, young drivers faced with this situation will overcorrect and jerk the wheel to forcefully. This can lead to them losing control of the vehicle. Let them gain experience with this type of emergency maneuver while you are teaching and talking them through it. When you feel that they are ready, have them drive off the road and bring the car safely back on to the road.

Another great learning experience is 5:00 traffic. They are going to have to drive in it eventually; don’t you want to make sure that you have taught them how before they tackle it on their own? Make it a point, when you think they are ready, to have them drive in stressful traffic situations, including traffic to and from ball games and concerts. If they have done this with you in the passenger seat, then when they are doing with a distracting friend in the seat beside them, they stand a much better chance of handling this safely.

Try to think of any other situations that might require your help and seek those out while you are still training them. We have a complete soup to nuts Teen Driver Training guide available to all of our insurance clients. This 47 page book will walk you through the process of teaching your child safe driving habits from vehicle maintenance to traffic lights, to highway safety and even includes a chapter on map reading. If you want to know more about this guide you can contact us by visiting our web site at www.TeenDriverInsurance.com/clinard.