Stop Teen Fatalities
Eight Tips for Parents
1. Monitor unsupervised driving. CarChip can help.
The first year of unsupervised driving is the most dangerous. Teen crash risks drop by two-thirds after the first 1,500 driving hours. During the first year of licensed driving, 1-in-5 male and about 1-in-10 female 16-year-old drivers will have a crash.
2. Ask your teen to sign a driving contract for a year, like one available from the Automobile Association of America.
3. Just say no to passengers the first year.
The incidence of teen fatalities goes up 50% for the first teen passenger and increases with additional teen passengers. Forty-five percent of the teens involved in fatal accidents were carrying a teen passenger.
4. Limit distractions.
Agree to no cell phone, texting, CD/Radio/MP3 players until vehicle is at a stop. At 35 mph, a two-second lapse in attention means you've traveled 100 feet without looking!
5. Limit nighttime driving.
Set a responsible curfew and stick to it. States with graduated driving programs reduce the risk of nighttime driving fatalities by up to 60 per cent.
6. Speed Kills. Slow down.
The number one cause of teen driving fatalities is lack of experience (82%). The number two cause is directly related to speed (37%). There is a reason they call them "speed limits." Driving under the speed limit is a virtue for young drivers whose driving abilities and experiences need to be built up over the first year of driving.
7. Always buckle up.
Approximately two-thirds of teens killed in vehicle crashes in 2003 were not wearing seat belts.
8. Be involved in the driving habits of your teen’s friends.
Open the conversation with your teen’s friends and their parents. Eighty-four percent of teenage motor vehicle crash deaths in 2005 were passenger vehicle occupants.
Sources: CarFax.com, DriverzEd.org, DoSomething.org, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
