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National Teen Driver Safety Week

Remind your teens about these safe driving habits during National Teen Driver Safety Week

October 19, 2017 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

It can be hard to sit down after a long day and discuss the merits of safe driving with your kids. Luckily, there’s an entire week dedicated to doing just that.

October 15-21 is National Teen Driver Safety Week, and entire seven days dedicated to promoting safe driving. It’s up to parents and their kids to make the most of it. If you believe what you read, earning a driver’s license is considered a rite of passage. It’s also a privilege, and in our world, it doesn’t hurt to remind teens (or anyone, for that matter) why. Take the opportunity to chat about these best-practices.

Eliminate distractions

Traffic fatalities have risen steadily over the last several years. Experts believe it’s a consequence of more distracted driving behavior. Cell phones have become an inextricable part of our lives, sometimes for the worse. Text messaging and, worse, browsing social media feeds, have led to devastating consequences. A solution: Put your phone on Airplane mode, store it in the glovebox and keep it there. It’s a simple, straightforward way to eliminate temptation and keep your eyes focused on the road ahead.

Never drink and drive

As much as parents like to believe that their teens exercise good judgment the fact remains: temptation is a powerful thing. Luckily, most know that drinking and driving is not only a dangerous choice, it’s also illegal. But that doesn’t mean their friends are thinking the same thing. When I talk to my kids about this very subject, I’m less inclined to talk about their judgment as I am their peers; temptation might be powerful, but so is peer pressure. Reminding your teen to never ride in a car with someone who’s been drinking is as important as teaching them not to drink and drive.

Follow the written and unwritten rules of the road

As driving goes, we depend on the judgment of complete strangers without realizing it most of the time. The road is a shared space, and those who use it are bound by a code of regulations — written and unwritten. That means driving responsibly and defensively, which also means setting a good example. Obeying speed limits, allowing extra time to get from point A to point B, yielding to pedestrians — these are staples of responsible driving that are learned over time. It also doesn’t hurt to let a fellow driver enter a congested intersection, or yield to someone who might be J-walking.

Pay attention to non-drivers

As Jay often talks about, cyclists deserve much more respect than they typically receive. But they also have as much responsibility as drivers to obey the rules. The difference being: One of you is driving a car, the other is steering a foot-operated, two-wheeled piece of graphite. Maintaining slow speeds, and allowing for extra room when passing cyclists or pedestrians is an important part of keeping everyone safe, especially in unpredictable circumstances.

Buckle up

Fundamental and necessary, yet fundamentally lacking among young teens and novice drivers. By not fastening seat belts, drivers and passengers increase the likelihood of injury or even death by a significant percentage margin. That’s a fact, not hyperbole. Buckling up needs to be a reflexive habit, and it goes back to what we said about setting the example. Children learn from an early age to imitate their parents and caregivers, so adults arguably have a greater responsibility to enforce this easily-maintained practice to inform the impressionable minds of young kids, who eventually become young drivers.

We promote safe and responsible driving because we often take legal action against people who do neither. If you’ve been injured in an accident because of negligence, contact our offices for help.

It’s Teen Driver Safety Week

October 17, 2016 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

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Your kids are getting older and that means more freedom. There’s one perk that figures to be a prominent point of contention: driving.

Parents, here’s your opportunity to ease the anxiety. Through Saturday, educators are taking part in National Teen Driver Safety Week, an advocacy campaign designed to raise awareness among teen drivers about operating vehicles responsibly. The annual program began back in 2007 after a series of crashes in Pennsylvania prompted aggressive action by Congress to curb future accidents.

Since then, advocacy programs have taken a long-term approach to tackling poor habits by encouraging community-based support systems rather than using scared-straight tactics to prevent would-be drivers from making bad decisions. For years, conventional wisdom held that showing kids pictures and videos of mangled cars was a good way to prevent that.

Not so much. Motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of death for 15–19 year olds in the U.S. There were 2,679 passenger vehicle drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2014 alone, and an estimated 123,000 teens were injured because of things like texting while driving, which accounts for thousands of preventable traffic-related fatalities each year.

Teen Driver Safety Week continues to receive a swell of support from influential figures, including endorsements from celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Jesse McCartney. Federal and local groups have also been eager to trot out new approaches to driver education by giving parents and teens alike an opportunity to ask questions or voice concerns from within a safe space.

Driver safety should be an ongoing conversation, but at the very least, you’ve got a full week when everyone is on the same page. Take advantage while you can.

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