We are now in the 100 Deadliest Days. What’s that? Glad you asked! The days between Memorial Day and Labor Day are statistically more deadly for teen drivers. According to AAA, more than 30% of deaths involving teen drivers occur during this time period.
So what can parent/guardians do to help keep their students safe? The best thing is to have open and honest discussions with them to reinforce safety actions and habits. Some of these are more obvious than others, like wearing a seatbelt or going the speed limit. Here are 3 things you can talk about with your student driver:
- Driving with distractions – It’s super dangerous to be handling the phone while driving. Have them make a playlist for their music so they can set it and forget it before they get on the road. If they need to text or call someone, talk about the importance of pulling over to a safe place to do instead of handling a phone/text conversation while on the road.
- Talk to your student about bringing their “A-game” when driving at night. Due to low visibility, driving at night is inherently more dangerous. Also, since it’s night time, the driver has probably been up all day and is more susceptible to fatigue. If they feel drowsy, then have them stay somewhere safe and at least take a nap! Lastly, the risk of sharing the road with potentially impaired drivers goes way up at night too, so all the more reason to be extra alert at night.
- The risk of teens being involved in a crash goes up exponentially the more people they have in the car with them – limit them to having one other person you trust to be responsible in the car with them.
The greatest thing you can do is to lead by example. They will take these discussions much more seriously if they see you abiding by your own rules!
