How Do We Control The Teenage Driving Problem
Teenage driving cause huge problems for for parents worldwide as there are many incidents of teen mishaps and fatalities on the road of teenage driving. The necessary thing here to do is to try and understand the reasons for these accidents and bring in the necessary changes to prevent such mishaps in the future. The areas to focus on would be the reduction in risk exposure, modification of risk taking ability, and providing sufficient education to the teenager to improve their driving skills.
The change in law to increase the driving age from 16 to 18 years is not the solution to this problem. This will only impact the Automobile industry and its related service sectors. It will be a big blow to manufacturers, driving instructors, gas companies, and insurance agents. There will be a sharp drop in revenues for the manufacturers as well as the insurance agents due to the change of law.
Main reasons for the teen crashes are immaturity, risk taking behavior, lack of skills and non-adherence to safety rules. It is important to educate the teenagers about these driving and safety rules and ensure that they follow them in a disciplined manner. The parents should not hand over the car keys to their children till the time they avoid such manners and gain the necessary driving skills.
Drunken driving, not wearing seat belts, distractions on the road, and late night driving have been the reasons for teen mishaps on the road. Most of the teen fatalities tend to occur between 6 PM to 6AM mainly on Fridays and weekends.
The safety rules are not followed by the teenagers in a proper manner. They don't drive with their parent or instructor for the first three months after getting their driving license, avoid driving at midnight except for some purposeful reason, avoid usage of gadgets like phones, and wear seat belts. The lack of discipline and non-adherence to safety rules has been a major reason for teen accidents.
In order to reduce risk for their teen children the parents should also be a part of their driving skills learning program. The parents should partner with their child to teach them defensive driving techniques and driver safety rules. The parent should also share their own driving experiences with their children. This will help them become more mature and prepared to handle any adverse situations.
The risk taking behavior of the teenager also requires modification. It is an important job for the parents to understand the reasons that could make their child take certain risks which could prove fatal. Then a plan should be prepared to analyze the behavior of the child and make them aware of the ramification for these actions. It should be noted that a teenager's body develops many changes during these growing years and the hormonal activities of the body can influence certain unwanted decisions. So it is important to make the teenager aware of the problems that they might face if they take such risks and try to modify their behavior.
It is important that these teenagers join the right driver education programs which are certified and authorized with quality instructors. This will help the teenager grasp the right kind of knowledge required to be safe on the road. The parent then has the responsibility to monitor the progress of the child and make them aware of the fact that this is just the first steps towards becoming an expert driver. by Nathan Lewit
About the Author:
Nathan Lewit is the president of Nathans Driving School situated in Georgia. Nathan's Driving School is one of the few accredited driving schools which focuses on teenage driving and the problem with teenage driving statistics.
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