Driving Tips for Teenagers

Teenage crashes are often not related to issues of driver skill. They are usually a result from lack of maturity and attitude.

Teenage drivers often transport their friends. This practice should be limited and supervised carefully. Having more passengers in a car increases the chance of greater risk taking, primarily because of peer pressure. It also leads to greater distractions. It’s up to parents to limit their teenager’s driving time with friends in the car.

You are your teenager's first driving instructor and coach. To be a credible supervisor, your own driving example and driving record are critical. Teenagers with poor driving records often reflect the behavior of their parents with poor driving records.

Take an active role in your teenager's driving practice. Plan on supervising for at least six months in order to get your teenager acclimated to a variety of road conditions before he or she takes a driving test to get a license.

If you wear your safety belt every time you drive, your son or daughter can adopt this behavior more easily. Require that your teenagers wear safety belts at all times. No exceptions.

Teenagers realize that driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs is clearly dangerous, and a face-to-face discussion with mom and dad is a strong statement reinforcing that fact. Let them know that alcohol and drug use is totally unacceptable when driving.

Graduated driver licensing limits new driver's privileges, allowing teenagers to gain experience and develop their driving skills behind the wheel under optimum driving conditions. Learn more about these programs from these websites:

Many teenage car crashes take place between 9 p.m. and 12 midnight. Teenagers should be restricted to driving during the day, and gradually introduced to night driving as they gain experience.

Remember that teenagers need to stay away from fast-moving, high volumes of traffic at first. Gradually introduce more difficult driving situations such as highway driving, merge ramps, and major urban traffic areas.

Limit your teen’s driving during periods of bad weather until he or she demonstrates a high level of competence and confidence. Coach your teenage driver to drive in rain, snow, wind, sleet, and ice.

If it is necessary to use a cell phone, instruct your teenager to pull safely over to the side of the road before making an emergency call.

Avoid extremely small cars, trucks, and sport utility vehicles. Look for automobiles with high safety ratings and features such as airbags and crumple zones. Look at federal statistics and consumer report literature to help evaluate those ratings.

This information was obtained from car-accidents.net