• Wear my seat belt.
• Have all my passengers wear a seat belt.
• Lock my doors while driving.
• Drive at safe speeds and obey traffic laws.

• Drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
• Be a passenger of someone under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
• Engage in stunts or racing.
• Hide any tickets, warnings or collisions.
• Allow anyone else to drive my car.
• Take any passengers in my car, other than parents, until given permission.

• No Alcohol or Drugs in the body or vehicle.
• Always buckle up and make sure everyone else is buckled.
• No talking or texting on cell phone.
• Possible curfew per graduated license requirements.
• Limit the number of passengers.
• Tell us about a ticket and why it happened.

Labels: car seat safety, distracted driving, driver safety, nighttime driving, parent teen driver, teen crashes, teen driver safety, traffic ticket

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 5,148 15 to 20 year old drivers were involved in fatal crashes in 2009; the last year for which there are complete figures. That figure reflects a dramatic decrease over the year before but it still means that more than 14 teens are killed every day in the US. Among all age groups, 15 to 20 year old drivers have the highest death rate.

In 2009, Texas led the nation in the number of teen driving fatalities with 556 deaths. That is just over ten percent of all the teen deaths that year. California came in second with 476 teen deaths and Florida was third with 389. Just like the rest of the nation, California and Florida experienced dramatic decreases in their death rates with a decrease of 22 percent and 28 percent respectively. Texas however only experienced a 6 percent decrease in the teen death rate over the previous year.

One thing that was brought up in the report was the fact that many of the teen drivers who were involved in fatalities in 2009 had a prior record of traffic violations. When their driving record was reviewed, it showed that:

• 12.8% had been involved in previous crashes
• 11.9% had had their driver's license suspended or revoked
• 1.6% had a previous DUI conviction
• 19.2% had previous speeding convictions
• 18.6% had other convictions for moving or harmful traffic violations
• At the time of their death 33% had a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of 0.01 or higher and 28% had a BAC of 0.08 or higher. The legal alcohol limit is 0.08 in all 50 states.

A recent study showed that teens have the greatest risk of experiencing their first crash within the first month of driving on their own. It has long been known that teens are impulsive and they tend to take chances with the attitude that "it won't happen to me."

Teens seem to equate passing the driving test with expertise in driving but, for most, getting their license means their driving education has really just begun. Other studies have shown that teens, while recognizing that their friends might not be good drivers, tend to think that their own driving skills are better than that of others. This is known in psychological circles as "illusory superiority"; a cognitive bias that causes people to overestimate their positive qualities and abilities and to underestimate their negative qualities, relative to others.

Teens also seem to blur the distinction between driving skills and dangerous driving. They tend to think of someone who drives dangerously as someone who has not developed good driving skills. The teen however sees his or her "good" driving skills as permission to push the envelope by speeding or texting while driving in the belief that they can handle their car no matter what.

If your teen has gotten a traffic ticket for a moving violation, it may be time to reign in their driving privileges until they learn that safe driving means not taking chances behind the wheel. If they have gotten more than one traffic ticket, it should raise red flags that this teen is on a very dangerous path.

Most states allow the parents of minor children to access their driving records. Most states also allow a parent to officially cancel their minor child’s driving privileges by filing a report at the DMV. This may seem extreme but sometimes that is what it takes to get a teen’s attention. Better for them to hate you alive than to love you dead.

Labels: driver record, driving skills, teen driver safety, teen drivers, traffic crashes, traffic violations

Where are people during the daytime? The short answer is: children are at school and adults are at work. There are so many driving safety programs out there that reach out to schools to teach teen drivers how to become better drivers. Every year in October, the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS) does something similar for the workplace.

This year’s campaign is called Focus 360°: Getting there is everyone's business. For the second year in a row, this year’s campaign is also focusing its energy on trying to keep distracted driving in check. Last year’s efforts have produced favorable results: nearly 88% of the 5000 organizations that participated now have some form of corporate mobile phone policy.

While the teen driver safety program covers half the population of drivers, NETS plans to cover the other half to keep everyone safe.

On the NETS site, they have a free downloadable Drive Safely Work Week toolkit (http://trafficsafety.org/drivesafelyworkweek/how-to-use.php) which is filled with tips/ideas, activities, graphics and all the resources needed to help employers provide education for their employees.

Several auto companies acknowledge the dangers of distracted driving and have internal policies for their employees not to be victimized by it. It is up to the employers or the organization if they are going to implement one.

The toolkit helps in 3 ways:

• it could help enforce existing workplace policies concerning driving and mobile phone use
• it could help employers establish a set of policies if they don’t have it yet
• it could help provide material on distracted driving for employees, if they don’t plan on establishing policies

The reason the campaign is called Focus 360° is because this year’s materials cover not only addressing distracted driving dangers as a driver, but also as a passenger, pedestrian or cyclist.

Drive Safely Work Week starts on October 3, and wouldn’t it be better if your employer grabbed the toolkit and planned the activities for the company this early? Better yet, why wait for October to keep everyone safe?

Labels: dangers of distracted driving, distracted driving, drive safely, driver safety, teen driver safety, teen drivers