News, Advice, and Tips for Parenting Teenagers

Passing laws that make it illegal for teenagers to drive while talking on cell phones do little good, according to a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The reasons are that teens ignore the laws and police do not enforce them. Police officers told researchers that it is impossible for them to tell which drivers are teens or if they are using hands-free devices, which are legal in some states.

Researchers watched teenagers driving out of high schools in North and South Carolina before and after such laws passed. About 12% of the students drove while talking on their phones, no matter what the law was.

Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have passed laws restricting teen cell phone use while driving.

Barbara Harsha, director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, said "the laws send a message to parents more than anything else."

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Labels: cell_phones, driving

More than two-thirds of teen drivers killed in car accidents at night were not wearing seatbelts, according to a study from the National Highway Safety Administration.

Nationally, seatbelt usage is increasing, with 82% of drivers and passengers fastening up.

However, seatbelt usage declines at night by over 20%. Car fatalities tend to occur between midnight and 3 a.m. During those hours, the fatality rate is 20 times higher than it is for daytime driving.

Nationally, about 4,400 teenagers 16 to 19 years old die in car accidents every year.

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Labels: driving, risky_behavior, safety

When a driver is newly licensed, he or she is by definition inexperienced. However, only 15% of teens believe their friends are inexperienced drivers, according to a survey from the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Over 85% of the 5,665 high school students in the survey said their friends were experienced drivers, even though "everyone they are driving with is virtually inexperienced," said lead researcher Dr. Kenneth R. Ginsburg.

Although having passengers in the car or using cell phones while driving increase the chance of an accident, very few teens in the survey recognized these dangers. Two-thirds said they usually travel with others in the car and a majority thought it was okay to talk on the phone while driving. This study appears in Pediatrics.

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Labels: driving, risky_behavior, safety

Teens who live in big cities like Chicago and New York are less likely to die in car accidents than their peers who live in smaller cities or rural areas, according to a new report from Allstate Insurance Company.

About 6,000 American teenagers die in car crashes every year. The number one cause of teen fatalities is driver error and not alcohol, as most people may believe.

Fatal car crashes for teens in rural areas are double those in cities and suburbs.

The most deadly areas for car crashes are the Tampa area in Florida; Orlando, FL; Jacksonville, FL; Nashville, TN; Phoenix, AZ; Kansas City, MO; and Atlanta, GA. The cities with the fewest teen car deaths are San Francisco/Oakland, CA; San Jose, CA; New York City; Los Angeles, CA; Cleveland, OH; Milwaukee, WI; Boston, MS; Portland, OR; Salt Lake City, UT; and Chicago, IL.

Labels: driving, safety, teenagers

The Kansas State House Transportation Committee is considering a bill that would, among other things, enact a graduated driver's license. The bill would also raise the age requirement for obtaining driving permits from 14- to 15-years-old.

"The bill would restrict young drivers in a number of ways including reduced driving hours and prohibitions on cell phone usage and number of young passengers in the car."

Additionally, the proposal raises the age requirement for restricted licenses from 15- to 16-years-old and limits driving hours to between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. Read more at CJOnline.com.

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Labels: driving, liability, safety

Researchers at the University of Michigan are calling for restrictions on teen driving at night and on weekends, after studying seventeen years of records of automobile crashes.

The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute scholars went through data from 7000 teenage drivers and recommended that teens be licensed to drive in a series of phases. In Phase 1, they could drive only if a licensed adult driver were in the car. In later phases, they could have passengers in the car and drive at night or weekends.

The researchers found that teen drivers are two and a half times more likely to be involved in an automobile accident than adult drivers, and their risk increases at night, on weekends and when there are passengers in the car.

Other states, including California, already have such granulated licenses for adolescents.

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Labels: driving, research, safety

After nearly getting into an accident with her teenage son behind the wheel, Corinne Fortenbacher decided the family car needed some kind of marking that would tell others on the road her son was a novice driver. Neither she, nor her son, could find anything they liked, so they created a magnet of their own.

"The result is their expanding 'Rookie Driver' designation, currently distributed in 45 states and Canada. Fortenbacher says parent concerns and the fact that over one million teens are involved in auto accidents each year have helped spread the word."

Their web site, RookieDriver.net, contains tips, a blog, and other "teen driver safety aids", all of which are designed by teenagers.

Labels: driving, safety

A new study of more than 2,000 parents and their children found that boys and girls observe their bad parents' driving habits at early ages and may imitate them once they get drivers' licenses of their own.

Eighty percent of the children (ages 10 to 18 years) observed their parents speeding, and a majority saw them multi-tasking, yelling or arguing with other drivers, and not keeping both hands on their steering wheels. One-third said their parents' driving habits sometimes scared them.

"'Do as I say, not as I do' seems to be the philosophy of many parents when it comes to teaching children safe driving habits," said Bill Windsor, vice president of safety for Nationwide Mutual Insurance, the company that conducted the study.

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Labels: driving, parenting, role_models

Rural teens are more likely to get into automobile accidents than teens who drive in cities, according to a study by the Texas Transportation Institute.

Spokesperson Russell Henk said, "Teens believe nothing is going to happen to me; there are only two cars on the road. The risk is higher because the speed limit is higher on rural roads. The speed of traffic is lower in urban areas because of congestion."

In 2006, 65% of teen fatalities occurred on rural roads. Besides the speeds involved, other risk factors in rural driving are driving after 10 pm, talking on cell phones or sending text messages while driving, driving without seat belts, having too many teens in one car, and drag racing.

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Labels: accidents, driving, safety

California became one of the sixteen states to make it illegal for teen drivers to talk on cell phones when they are driving. The new law goes into effect in July 2008, and imposes fines of $20 for the first offense and $50 for subsequent tickets.

A study by Ford Motor Company found that adult and teen drivers could recognize 97% of potentially dangerous situations as they used a driving simulator. However, the researchers used the same people in the same simulators but allowed participants to use hands-free cell phones. In the second tests, teens missed 54% of the hazards and adults missed 14%. The Center for Disease Control found that drivers ages 16 to 19 years were four times more likely to be involved in a car crash than older drivers.

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Labels: cell_phones, driving, risky_behavior

A jury in suburban Chicago convicted Tara and Daniel Hutsell this week of endangering the life of a child and lying to police after two teenagers died in a car crash after attending a party at their home.

The Hutsells, both age 53, will be sentenced in September.

Both adults were home during a party hosted by their son. Two eighteen-year-old guests died when their car slammed into a tree. The driver was legally drunk, and the passenger had been smoking marijuana.

More and more states are passing laws that make parents legally responsible for the consequences of underage drinking in their homes, according to James Mosher, director of the Center for the Study of Law and Enforcement Policy. Mosher said he was unsure if the criminalization of parents would become a good way of preventing other such tragedies.

The parent of one of the boys at the party, Vicki Ettelson, disagreed.

"Parents cannot operate under the assumption that drinking occurs, and there's not a lot that we as parents can do about it," she said. "It's okay to say no."

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Labels: driving, liability, responsibility

Across America many cities, counties and states have made laws increasingly strict for teen drivers. Graduated laws ban young drivers from having other teens in the car. To get around this law, some teens have resorted to riding in the trunk.

"'I've ridden in the trunk many times,' said David Mack. 'We often have too many people in the car and since I'm the smallest, it all came down to me.'"

But teens don't realize that "trunking" is not only illegal, but extremely dangerous. Experts are pushing parents to make their kids aware of the driving laws, stating that it's up to the parents to ensure kids make it "through their teenage years safely." Read more at WoodTV.com.

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Labels: driving, risky_behavior, safety

When a new teen driver gets added to his parents' insurance, the insurance often increases dramatically. In an effort to keep costs down, and keep kids safe, several companies and organizations have developed systems for monitoring teen drivers.

"Rookie tags: The mother-and-son team of Corinne and Austin Fortenbacher of Spring Lake, Mich., has developed a line of magnets and removable vinyl stickers starting at about $7 that identify novice teen drivers and promote safe habits."

Other companies have developed GPS tracking systems, or "how's my driving?"-type bumper stickers. None of these is guaranteed to reduce insurance premiums directly, but they can keep a teen's driving record clear, which will at least keep insurance premiums steady. Read more online.

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Labels: driving, money

SafeCo is preparing to launch a new program called "Teensurance", meant to help parents monitor the driving habits of their teenagers. The program consists of a GPS device that can be installed in a car to record information. Parents can then monitor the information on line.

"The service, for $15 per month, gives drivers 24/7 roadside assistance, and lets parents set speed limits and 'safe driving zones,' and use curfew reminders."

If a driver goes over the speed limit or leaves a designated safety zone, an alert is sent via text message or email. SafeCo Vice President Jim Havens said they developed Teensurance in response to parental concerns over teenagers' initial driving period. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, car crashes are the number one cause of death among U.S. teenagers. Read more at StatesmanJournal.com.

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Labels: driving, safety

Recently, a fatal crash in Ontario County, New York took the lives of several teenagers. Authorities suspect the driver may have been sending a text message from her cell phone in the moments before the crash. It sounds astonishing, but texting and driving are becoming more common among teens.

"'The two main factors in accidents involving teens are inexperience and distractions', said Dan Strollo, president of In Control Advanced Driver Training."

A recent survey by FOX News in Minnesota found that 86 percent of teens admitted reading text messages while driving. Seventy-five percent admitted to sending text messages while behind the wheel. Read more online.

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Labels: driving, safety, text_messaging

No matter how much the world changes, some things always stay the same; like kids fighting in the car during a family vacation. Despite inventions like iPods and portable DVD players, vacations almost always include some family tension. But, some parenting experts say there are ways to reduce the tension and make the trip fun for everyone.

"The worst thing moms and dads can do is sit the kids down and talk about how awful the drive will be and then threaten them to behave. When [Carleton] Kendrick took long drives with his children, he tried to make the road a fun experience and to do 'goofy things we've never done before.'"

Play games, sing songs, and above all - take your time. Don't try to cram too much into one day. Instead, consider picking a closer destination so you can drive less and spend more time stopping and enjoying the scenery along the way.

Read more at BendBulletin.com.

Labels: driving, role_models, vacation

More teen drivers are injured and killed between June and September than during the remaining months of the year. There are many factors that play into this statistic and many things parents can do to keep their teens safe.

"It appears that old-fashioned parenting is waning especially with a host of new products that help parents keep tabs on their children, including one-touch phones and even electronic tags that can be sewn into clothing. However, remember that eyes, ears and plain old attention and accountability go a long way in keeping tabs on your children."

Studies have shown that parents who set strict rules and consequences for their teen drivers significantly reduce risky driving behavior such as speeding, and adjusting the radio or CD player while driving. Read more at WacoTrib.com.

Labels: driving, risky_behavior, safety

Teens who learned to drive from their parents, relatives or other non-professional instructors are 50 percent more likely to get into an injury accident, according to a study by the Texas Transportation Institute.

Researchers looked at the records of 1.4 million drivers under age 18. Those drivers who were taught by anyone other than a professional instructor were more likely to be involved in a serious injury accident. Before 1997, all Texas drivers had to have professional training.

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Labels: driving, parents, teenagers

The Allstate Foundation recently completed survey on parental contributions to teen driving safety. The survey revealed that most parents are aware of the fact that car crashes are the number 1 cause of teen deaths. What they don't know is that the crashes are more often caused by driver error or speeding than by drunk driving.

"Additionally, while most parents surveyed feel prepared to teach their teens the rules of the road, 60 percent say they have never heard of or are only vaguely aware of Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) laws."

Graduated Driving Laws are intended to ease teenagers into the responsibilities of driving by requiring a longer period of supervised driving, and restrictions on late-night driving and driving with other teenagers. It's also important for parents to model good driving when in the car with their teens. Read more at TheAutoChannel.com.

Labels: driving, laws

The largest study ever of teen driving habits indicates that they get into accidents not only because they drink and drive, but also because of distractions like noisy passengers and cell phones.

The National Teen Driver Survey of 5,565 teenagers, done in cooperation with State Farm Insurance and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, found that teen drivers face "a driving environment that would be challenging even to experienced drivers."

• 90% said friends in the car distracted the drivers;
• 79% said they had witnessed teen passengers dancing and singing;
• 89% said friends used cell phones for talking or text messaging while they were driving.

Teens also reported that many of their friends drink and drive, do not wear seatbelts, and participate in off-road racing. Every year about one in five high school students is a passenger in an automobile accident.

Labels: cell phones, driving, text messaging

In 15 months, 15 teens were killed in driving accidents in the state of Illinois. In an order to reduce the number of needless deaths, state Senators and Representatives are proposing a bill that would toughen the laws that govern teen drivers.

"One provision would triple the amount of time - from three months to nine - that a teen (typically a 15-year-old) must hold a learner's permit. Only six states now have a permit phase that is nine months or longer, according to the Insurance Information Institute."

Other provisions include earlier curfews and six hours required driving with an instructor. Read more online.

Labels: driving, laws, teenagers