COMMENTS FROM MICAH
Now that school is out, and summer is officially underway, many parents are seeing their teens doing more driving.
The 100 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day is a time when there is an increase in fatal crashes involving teens.
A study done by the foundation in 2017 showed that teens are three-times more likely than adults to be involved in fatal crashes.
Over the summer months the mixture of inexperienced drivers and more opportunities to be driving is a deadly combination.
Parents have more influence over their teens than they may think. In fact, leading experts believe parents play a key role in preventing teen car crashes and deaths.
Teens with parents who set rules, monitor their driving, and are supportive are half as likely to crash and twice as likely to use seat belts as teens with less involved parents.
Parents should get involved with their teens and stay involved through their teen driving years to make sure they follow good driving habits and to set good examples with their own driving behavior.
Distractions, including other teens in the vehicle, speeding, nighttime driving, and lack of seat belt use are all factors that play a role in fatal teen crashes.
Most of these are regulated by the Graduated Driver License Law, which parents should become familiar in order to protect teen drivers with in the beginning stages of their driving. It is designed to prevent cell phone use, limit the number of teen passengers that can legally ride with a novice driver, and also limit nighttime driving.
See https://www.dps.texas.gov/DriverLicense/teen-Driver.htm for information.
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