How can parents protect their teenage drivers?

Protecting your children is a non-stop responsibility for you as a parent, and things only get harder as they grow older. Teaching them how to drive is a milestone for any family, but it doesn’t come without concerns.

Teenagers are more likely to die because of a car crash than any other cause. Drivers between 16 and 19 years old are three times as likely to be involved in a fatal crash than more experienced drivers. While driver’s education may lay the groundwork to avoid these heartbreaking scenarios, it may rest on your shoulders to keep educating your children.

Revealing risks

It’s important to speak with your new drivers about the risks they face on the road, and how to combat them. What may seem like a simple answer to you may not occur to teenage drivers. Going a little over the speed limit, messing around with friends or not wearing seatbelts may not seem like a big deal to them, but they are a few of the biggest risks for teens behind the wheel:

• A fifth of teen driving accidents involve alcohol
• Over half of the fatalities that occur are because they aren’t wearing seatbelts
• One-in-ten drivers die because they were busy with distractions like eating or texting
• One-third of all teenage driving accidents involve speeding
• Passengers increase the likelihood that an inexperienced driver will crash

Hands-on help

But telling them isn’t always enough. There are a few other ways to guide your children down the right road for safer driving:

• Continue riding with your new driver and help them, even if the law no longer requires it
• Practice with them in different situations, like during bad weather, at night or in crowded city settings
• Set ground rules for safety, like limiting passengers, only driving during the day or not driving too long

Covering all this with your kids can help keep them safe, but the world will continue to be a dangerous place. Accidents out of their control can still strike. Getting them healthy can rely on enlisting help, so look to the team at Satterley & Kelley PLLC. We can guide you toward the recovery that your family needs to move forward, so get in touch with us today.