Teenage driving cause huge problems for for parents worldwide as there are many incidents of teen mishaps and fatalities on the road of teenage driving. The necessary thing here to do is to try and understand the reasons for these accidents and bring in the necessary changes to prevent such mishaps in the future. The areas to focus on would be the reduction in risk exposure, modification of risk taking ability, and providing sufficient education to the teenager to improve their driving skills.
Simply increasing the driving age from 16 to 18 years may not be the right solution to reduce teen crashes. It will only impact several sectors of the automobile industry like manufacturers, insurance agents, driving instructors and gas companies. Both auto manufacturers and insurance agents will see a sharp drop in their revenues due to these measures.
It is important to educate the teens regarding driving rules and make them adhere to these rules in a disciplined manner. It has been found that lack of skills, risk taking behavior, and immaturity are the main reasons that lead to teen crashes. So it is important for the parents to guide their children to avoid such behaviors and develop sufficient skills before they hand them the car keys.
Drunken driving, not wearing seat belts, distractions on the road, and late night driving have been the reasons for teen mishaps on the road. Most of the teen fatalities tend to occur between 6 PM to 6AM mainly on Fridays and weekends.
There are several safety rules laid down by the authorities for the safety of these teenagers but they don’t follow these in a proper manner. Teenagers are supposed to wear seat belts, avoid using gadgets like phones, and avoid driving at midnight except for some practical reasons and drive with a parent or instructor for the first three months after receiving their driving license. The lack of discipline amongst teens to follow these rules is a major concern.
In order to reduce risk for their teen children the parents should also be a part of their driving skills learning program. The parents should partner with their child to teach them defensive driving techniques and driver safety rules. The parent should also share their own driving experiences with their children. This will help them become more mature and prepared to handle any adverse situations.
The teenagers risk taking behavior also needs to be modified. Due to hormonal influence and certain growth related patterns the teenagers tend to take certain unwanted risks. It is necessary for the parent to analyze this risk and make the teen aware of the consequence of this action. Once the teenager is aware of the problems that might occur they will show tendencies to avoid risk taking behavior.
It is important that these teenagers join the right driver education programs which are certified and authorized with quality instructors. This will help the teenager grasp the right kind of knowledge required to be safe on the road. The parent then has the responsibility to monitor the progress of the child and make them aware of the fact that this is just the first steps towards becoming an expert driver.
Nathan’s Driving School is one of the only accredited driving schools which specializes in teenage driving georgia and the reduction of insurance cost, visit teenage driver education for quality driving instructions.
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