Teen Driver Safety Awareness Tips | Marietta Wrecker

Share This With Your Teens, It’s National Teen Driver Safety Week!

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Share This With Your Teens, It’s National Teen Driver Safety Week!

Parents, do you have a teen behind the wheel? Or is your teen planning to drive soon?

There are roughly 13 million teen drivers in the United States. And on average, there are 9 teenagers, ages 16-19, that die in car accidents every day.

Each year the third week in October, October 21-27, is National Teen Driver Safety Week and here at Marietta Wrecker, we are devoted to keeping our community safe behind the wheel. Raising awareness and understanding the risk factors for teen drivers can help us find solutions to maintain a safer road way for our teens and for ourselves.

You can be a part of the solution. You can make a difference!

Here The Center for Disease Control & Prevention cites the many factors that put teens at risk, preventions that can be taken, and additional resources to help ensure your teen’s safety behind the wheel.

Teen Driver Safety Awareness | Marietta Wrecker Blog

Here are 8 Danger Zones

What are the leading causes of teen crashes?

  1. Driver inexperience
  2. Driving with teen passengers
  3. Nighttime driving
  4. Not using seat belts
  5. Distracted driving
  6. Drowsy driving
  7. Reckless driving
  8. Impaired driving

So what can you as parents do? Last year we created this helpful checklist to help to get a dialogue started with your teen.

Parents: Get involved and SET EXAMPLES! Modeling our behavior since birth, our children and teens are paying attention, and driving is no different. It’s essential that parents model excellent driving behavior and follow the rules of the road themselves – And teaching our teens to drive can also help us model better driving behaviors, too.

Parents: Set rules and expectations for your teen driver. A parent-teen formal agreement makes a difference. A formal agreement outlines rules, privileges, and consequences for both parties. For Georgia’s Teen Driver/ Parent Agreement, visit here.

Parents: Become a role model for your teen. Practice distract-free driving, free of cell phones, texting, and social media. Never drink and drive. Teens who have seen their parents drink and drive were 3x more likely to participate in driving after drinking themselves.

7 Driving Tips for Parents of Teens

  1. Limit driving with younger passengers.
  2. Create a written, formal agreement with your teen.
  3. Practice, practice, practice! Practice driving with your teens for at least 30 minutes each week. It is recommended that parents spend a 50 hour minimum supervising their teen’s driving. Studies show that 44% of parents do NOT spend the minimum recommendation of practice driving with their teen.
  4. Continue to ride with them frequently, even after they receive their license. Do you feel safe?
  5. Create active dialogue with your teens. Ask them what they feel most comfortable and uncomfortable performing while driving. Work on those areas.
  6. Go out for a drive often with them. Instead of driving to a familiar grocery store, let your teen take you to a busy intersection, or practice merging on a highway during rush hour. The more practice the better!
  7. Allow your parents to correct you, too! Teaching our teens to drive can make us all better drivers.

New Distracted Driving Laws in Georgia for Teens and Everyone

In July of this year, the State of GA implemented a new law banning a driver from holding their cell phone while operating a vehicle. This change will help mitigate fatal crashes due to texting but according to The United States Department of Transportation, cell phones cause 1.6 million accidents and result in 6,000 fatalities each year.

Teach your teens to keep their cell phones out of sight while driving. Nothing is as important than a human life.

At Marietta Wrecker, we are devoted to safe driving and teen driving safety awareness. We recommend parents practice with teens through ride-alongs, thirty minutes a week, for at least 6 months. A year is ideal. Travel with your teens and get involved. And most importantly, keep an open dialogue and always model excellent driving behavior. Wear your seat belt and encourage others to wear theirs, properly follow the rules of the road, and abstain from using your phone while driving.