Posts Tagged ‘parents’

Summer is great. The weather is warm enough for shorts and t-shirts, the water is (in some places) warm enough for swimming, and teens get a whole three months off of school. But it turns out summer is incredibly dangerous for teen drivers and motorcyclists. This week, AAA released a new report showing that seven of the 10 most fatal teen driving days occur the summer months between Memorial Day and Labor Day. So in addition to enjoying to their summer, teen drivers can take the summer to improve their knowledge of driver safety and even study to take their California drivers license test.

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There are so many safety factors to consider when your teenager begins driving. When it comes to teen brain development, distracted driving, and graduated license laws, parents have a strong role in assuring that their children stay safe behind the wheel. Great safety strategies include educating your teen about the dangers of distracted driving, and creating a teen-parent safe driving contract that rewards safe driving behavior. But there’s one aspect for new teen drivers that parents have complete control over: what car (if any) they will drive.

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Consumer Reports is absolutely killing it when it comes to distracted driving coverage. Last week, I reviewed their April edition, in which Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, a tireless advocate for stricter distracted driving laws, said he would use his clout to push for a nationwide anti-distracted driving law. Later in the week, the magazine’s car blog profiled some groundbreaking youngsters leading the next generation of vehicle safety advocates. And today, the advocacy group’s website will host LaHood in a conversation titled “Distracted Driving Shatters Lives.”

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Like drunk driving and wearing a seat belt, avoiding distracted driving is becoming more and more of a no brainer. The Department of Transportation has reported that there were 6,000 deaths and half a million injuries caused by distracted driving last year alone, making it the number one killer of teenagers. But as technology becomes more advanced, the temptation to text, email, or talk on the phone while driving becomes even more of a problem. In a major story for its April edition, Consumer Reports has targeted distracted driving, its major opponents, and listed ideas for what regular people can do to end it.

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Did you make any new years resolutions this winter? For the driving safety parent, cutting down on your child’s use of cell phones behind the wheel is a great resolution option. Each year, more than 6,000 teenagers are killed and nearly half a million are injured in accidents related to distracted driving. And safety advocates have said that many of these accidents can be avoided simply by raising awareness. Now, Glee star Jane Lynch has joined the fight against cell phone misuse in a series of videos produced by LG designed to help parents boost cell phone safety for their teens.

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In July, Iowa joined the 30 states that have boosted highway safety by enacting laws against distracted driving. Iowa police cannot impose fines on drivers who disobey the law until July of 2011, so until then, the Wall Street Journal reports, the state’s police have come up with a creative alternative: passing out neon bands with the words “TXTING KILLS” for drivers to wear on their thumbs.

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It’s natural that National Teen Driver Safety Week would ignite discussions about teen safety issues related to distracted driving, reckless actions, and graduated licensing laws. What’s unusual about this year’s NTDSW is that it comes on the heels of an AAA study which puts some of the blame on some parents for their children not being prepared to drive unsupervised, especially in heavy traffic or rain. Although more than half of parents don’t consider their child prepared to drive after a yearlong learner’s stage, a third of those families allow their son or daughter to get their license within a month of being eligible.

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Is your teenager getting enough sleep? If not, he or she could be in danger of an early morning collision, says a new report by Eastern Virginia Medical School professors. Using data from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles, the study compares crash rates for teenage drivers from two towns: Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. In Virginia Beach, where high school classes begin at 7:20 am, the crash rate was 41 percent higher than Chesapeake, where classes begin at 8:40 am.

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Graduation can bring out the best and worst in freedom-bound high school students. Oftentimes, each productive achievement and accolade is met with a destructive antidote in the form of underage drinking. For this reason, GJEL Accident Attorneys encourages parents to take away the keys on graduation day to prevent potential drunk or impaired driving incidents.

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Just looking at the yearly statistics for auto accidents here in the United States, it’s clear that safety laws don’t go far enough. Last year, for example, more than 6,000 people were killed and 500,000 were injured by accidents related to distracted driving. The “epidemic,” as Secretary of Transportation Ray Lahood calls it, is now the number one killer of teenagers nationwide, but barely half of the states have restrictions on cell phone use while driving. And while new states continue to jump on the anti-distracted driving band wagon each day, nationwide legislation banning the practice has stalled in Congress.

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