There is a reason parents give so many stern lectures about safety tips for driving to their teens. Young people are not very good drivers. If experience means anything, the person with the newest license is the person with the least.
In 36 states, drivers between 16 and 24 have the highest accident fatality rate. There are good reasons for this. And lack of experience is just one of them. That means parents are not wrong to give those lectures. If anything, they should give more lectures.
One of the bigger problems with young drivers is that many of the things that would make them better drivers are things they really don’t want to hear. Some part of that unwanted advice might also involve things they don’t know. If you are a younger driver, or have the duty to give the lecture to a younger driver, here is what you need to know, whether or not you or they want to know it:
Accidents Can Make Insurance Hard to Come By
Accidents happen to every driver at some point or other. Unfortunately, one of those points is usually when they are young. When a new driver gets their first car, their biggest concern is for the health and safety of the car. If it is a new car, they are paranoid about dents and scratches.
Initially, their searches are for “auto detailers near me.” But after their first accident, the search quickly changes to “auto body shop near me.” The first accident might be relatively affordable. But accident forgiveness comes over time. Insurance companies have long memories. They generally charge you more after an accident. Before long, the driver will have to try to get a special kind of insurance that is more expensive, and reserved for drivers that present a higher risk to the company.
Insurance is required. Being caught driving without insurance can lead to the kind of penalties that are hard to overcome. At some point, your license could be taken away. From there, it can be exceedingly difficult to get it back. Young drivers have to understand that there is more at stake than a paint job.
A Safe Car Is Better Than a Cool Car
If your idea of “cool” is tied up in a vehicle, you might be too young to drive. No matter how many items you have in your car to enhance safety, it won’t matter if the car, itself, isn’t safe. If you are looking to buy your teen a car, don’t look for the fastest or the coolest car. A great safety tips is to look for the safest car for teens.
If a car lists 0 to 60 as one of the highlight features, steer clear of it. If you give a teen a fast car, they will eventually want to test it. You might also want to avoid that murdered out Vader-black paint job. It looks incredible in the day, but doesn’t show up so well at night. For the highest level of safety, a teens first car should probably be a truck. People in larger vehicles tend to fair better in an accident.
Just Say NO to Passengers
A teen with a newly minted license has no business playing taxi to anyone. Blame the statistics. Having even one passenger makes a teen driver twice as likely to have a fatal accident. There is simply a level of distraction that teens are not mature enough to deal with.
One problem is teens don’t know they are distracted. They think they are in control when they aren’t. The other issue is they are too ashamed to admit when they are distracted. They don’t have the maturity or confidence to tell their friends to settle down. Giving a ride should be the rare exception, and only to the well-behaved.
The safety tips young drivers least want to hear are most often the ones they need the most. Accidents have a negative effect on insurance. The most important attribute of a car is safety. And like speed, passengers can be fatal. With maturity and experience, some of these risk factors are greatly mitigated. Till then, play it safe.
