How to make your teen a better driver

I came across an interesting article on MSNBC titled "Study: Extra training helps teens avoid crashes" that says that teaching teens how to avoid crashes will make them safer drivers. Imagine that. By teaching teens how to react in emergency situations, we're making them better drivers. The article goes on to say that trained students have a powerful advantage over untrained drivers when it comes to out-of-the ordinary situations such as adverse weather conditions or erratic drivers.

When we send our teens out on the road, we hope and pray that they've learned enough to know how to react in situations. The problem is, they don't. They lack experience and most have only been trained on the basics of driving - how to start, stop, move the vehicle and park - not what to do if someone or something swerves in their lane or their tire blows out.

Simulation-based driver training shows teens how to react in these situations over and over again in a safe, controlled and supervised environment so that when they do encounter a situation, they know firsthand how to handle it. Will this type of training help decrease our teen driver fatalities each year? The study says "YES".

To read the study, click here.

Parents Draft Contracts on Teen Drivers

Some parents are taking matters into their own hands and imposing driving restrictions on their teen - with or without a Graduated Driver's License in place.

According to a new policy titled The Teen Driver written by the American Academy of Pediatrics, experts say that parents who serve as driving role models while ensuring their teen gets adequate supervised driver education training are the key to saving teens' lives. This has encouraged some parents to start drawing up driving contracts with their teen. The driving contracts impose restrictions on the teen such as what car they can drive, when they can drive and who is in the car. If violated, parents are in control and can revoke driving privileges.

Your teen may rebel, but will soon realize this is what it's going to take to ensure they're safe on the road.

Drivers on cell phones are as bad as drunk drivers

Cell Phone Usage While Driving

Is It As Dangerous As Drunk Driving? Psychologists Agree.

It has been a debate that has gone on for some time now - whether to ban cell phones while driving. DrivingMBA asks the question, “Is cell phone usage as dangerous as drunk driving on the road?” Utah psychologists, the National Safety Council and others around the nation say yes.

A study that garnered the media's wide attention showed that drivers who talk on hand-held or hands-free cellular devices, or worse yet, text messaging, are as impaired as drunken drivers. Results stated that talking on the phone leads to a 30% reduction in reaction time. Text messaging, according to the National Safety Council, takes a driver’s eyes off the road 40% more often than if the driver was not texting.

“We found that people are as impaired when they drive and talk on the cell phone as they are when they drive intoxicated at the legal blood-alcohol limit,” said Frank Drews, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Utah. “If legislators really want to address driver distraction, then they should consider outlawing cell phone use while driving.”This study didn’t just analyze teens, it stated that all drivers, novice or experienced, become easily distracted while driving and talking on a cell phone. It is not the actual cell phone in hand that’s the distracting part, but the conversation itself.In order for legislators to ban cell phone use while driving completely, certain steps need to occur.

If you're interested in making a change, team up with others in your community and contact your local congressmen.

To read the complete study on cell phone usage while driving, click here. To read more articles about teen driving, click here.