Earning a driver’s license marks an exciting milestone for teens. Along with that comes a new level of responsibility. Parents and other adults play a crucial role in shaping safe driving habits by modeling responsible behavior for teen drivers.
Are you familiar with Missouri’s Graduated Driver License (GDL) law? It is a three-step licensing process designed to help inexperienced teen drivers acquire the skills needed to be responsible drivers and make the road safer for all drivers.
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for teens. However, there are ways to help them become a safer driver and prevent or reduce these deaths and injuries. One way is to make sure your teen driver knows the risk factors and is aware of the eight danger zones (from the CDC) that can cause a teen driver to crash.
Five of the greatest driving dangers for teen drivers to contend with are: driving impaired, not using a seat belt, distracted driving, speeding and driving with passengers in the vehicle. What do you see wrong in the picture above?
Distracted driving is one of the leading causes of teen crashes; cell phone use another major contributor. However, a third distracted driving behavior leading to teen car accidents is the passenger interaction among teen passengers. Studies show that a teen’s chances of getting into an accident increase with each additional teenage passenger in the car.
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens.
“In 2016, 2,433 teens in the United States ages 16–19 were killed and 292,742 were treated in emergency departments for injuries suffered in motor vehicle crashes. That means that six teens ages 16–19 died every day due to motor vehicle crashes and hundreds more were injured.”
Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death for teen drivers (ages 15- to 20-year-olds). Teach your teens about potential hazards on the road; make sure your teen knows how to spot a drunk driver.
With school being out, more teens are on our busy Kansas City roads, some of whom are fairly new drivers. June is National Safety Month and we want to share some safe driving practices with those teenage drivers.
