Driven to Distraction – Connecting with Kids

by Comments are off

Driven to Distraction

“They wanna
talk to their passengers, they wanna carry on their conversations, they
wanna be cool, they go a little faster.”
Officer
Charles Forrester

Seventeen-year-old Jason Brady
was a popular high school wrestler.

“He always had this
smile like everything’s gonna be OK,” says his friend, eighteen-year-old
Jacob.

But on March 16, things didn’t
turn out “OK”. Jason, riding with four other teens, died when
the car flipped coming around a turn.

The fact that teens can be
dangerous drivers is no surprise, but now a study by John Hopkins School
of Public Health has quantified the risk and shows how that risk increases
with additional teen passengers. A sixteen-year-old to seventeen-year-old
with one passenger is fifty percent more likely to die. Two passengers
doubles the danger, and with three or more, the chance of a fatal accident
more than triples.

“They wanna talk
to their passengers, they wanna carry on their conversations, they wanna
be cool, they go a little faster. They tend to go a little faster when
there are more of them in the car,” explains traffic enforcement
officer Charles Forrester.

Experts
say parents need to teach teens how to say “no” when loading
in a car with a group of friends. Put them in a drivers’ safety
program or take them to the junk yard to see first hand the smashed
up cars.

WHAT
PARENTS SHOULD KNOW

We all remember how
exciting it was to get our driver’s license. It meant freedom and mobility
in our active and exciting young lives. It is no different today with
young teens learning to drive and earning their driver’s license. But,
statistics show that 16 and 17-year-old drivers run a much higher risk
of being involved in an accident than older drivers are. And, if that
isn’t enough, new research is now showing that the more teenage passengers
in the car, the greater the risk of dying in an accident.

Researchers from Johns
Hopkins School of Public Health have found that sixteen-year-olds who
drive with one passenger are 39% more likely to get killed than those
driving alone. That increases to 86% with two passengers and 182% with
three or more. And, for 17-year olds, the added risk of having passengers
along is even more dramatic: 48% higher with one passenger, 158% higher
with two and a frightening 207% higher with three or more young people
in the car.

The main reasons teens
are at a higher risk for being in car crashes are simply their lack of
experience and their tendency to take risks while driving. The influence
from peers and other stresses and distractions can lead to reckless driving
behaviors such as speeding, not wearing a seat belt and driving under
the influence of alcohol and drugs. The death rate increases dramatically
when teenagers drive after 10 p.m., and even more after midnight. Add
passengers to that equation and the driver’s chances of dying in a late
night accident increase even more.

Graduated
Licensing Law

Experts feel
that the increased death rate among teen drivers has less to do
with their behavior and more to do with their lack of experience.
The US Department of Transportation recommends “graduated licensing”
so that learning to drive is spread over three stages. This would
require teenagers to first prove themselves capable of driving in
the presences of an adult, followed by a period of passenger driving
or night restrictions before gaining full driving privileges.

Recent studies
are showing that this new system has helped to reduce teenage driver
crashes. Approximately half of the states have implemented some
sort of graduated licensing system, but only 10 have restrictions
on passengers. The strictest is California where a beginning driver
is not allowed to carry any passengers under the age of 20 (without
an adult over 25) for the first six months.

How
Can Parents Help!

  • Establish
    “house rules” about driving even before your teen gets a license.
  • Let them
    know you are concerned for their safety. Share information and
    statistics with them.
  • You control
    the keys. Don’t hesitate to take them away if driving rules are
    broken.
  • Develop your
    own graduated driving program that increases driving privileges
    as your teen gains more experience.
  • Don’t break
    rules yourself just because of convenience. Arrange a car pool
    of parents and take turns driving.

Resources

National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration – http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov

Advocates for Highway
and Auto Safety – http://www.safroads.org

National Safety Council
– http://www.nsc.org

The American Academy
of Pediatrics – http://www.aap.org/family/teendrvr.htm

For
more information on
parenting issues contact us:
Connecting with
Kids