National Teen Driver Safety Week

This week is National Teen Driver Safety Week – October 19th – October 25th.  I’m working with Straight Talk Wireless to show how you can help give teens the tools they need to become responsible, safe drivers. Car crashes are the primary cause of death for 15-20 year olds; this is four times the death rate compared to adult drivers (ages 25 to 69)*.  Perhaps you have a new driver or a teen who has been driving a couple of years now.  National Teen Driver Safety Week  is the perfect time to discuss driving facts and tips with your teen that may safe his/her life.  It’s also a good time for you to set…or reset…some new boundaries and do what you can as a parent to keep a watchful eye on your teen’s driving.

 Sobering Facts to Discuss with Your Teen

#1  Every day, an average of 10 young people are killed and 800+ are injured due to car crashes.

It’s easy to think, “that won’t happen to me.”  As adults we still think it, though we are a bit more realistic.  But as teenagers, it’s nearly unfathomable that it could happen to them.  Teenagers have the lowest seatbelt use of any age range.  Encourage your teen to buckle up, it could save their life.

You can only imagine the distraction that occurs to your teen driver when their friends are in the car with them.  Impress upon your teen’s mind their responsibility to drive their friends, themselves…and your car safely.  It’s an incredible responsibility.  As such, they have to right to kick anyone out of the car they choose if the person is distracting.  Help your teen recognize that they have permission to be the authority figure in the car as the driver.

The risk of a fatal collision doubles with a driver and one passenger in the car.  Throw in 2 or 3 more passengers and the fatality rate quadruples!  Distraction is hardly inescapable.  Cover these facts with your teen ahead of time so s/he can be more aware and have a plan of what to do BEFORE everyone piles into his/her car.

 #2  Texting and driving causes your eyes to be off the road for 5 seconds for every text sent.  This is the equivalent of traveling nearly 1 1/2 football fields at 60 mph!

Wow, 1 1/2 football fields, that’s a long ways to be distracted while driving.  You might think, no, my teen would never text while driving 60 mph, but you would be surprised. Especially with voice-activated text, people think that speaking their texts keeps them less distracted.  The problem is they need to read the text before they send it to ensure auto correct didn’t mess up their intended message.  If it did, the temptation will be strong to fix it while driving so they can send their text.

The temptation to save time and text while driving is EXTREMELY strong.  I know, I’ve felt it many times before. That’s why the Safe Driver Car Connection device from Straight Talk works with an additional free app, called ZoomSafer, (for Android, Blackberry, and iOS), that disables texting and phone usage while the car is in use (even blocks app usage!).  When a phone call comes in, the caller will automatically receive a notification that the driver will call them back when no longer driving.

# 3  Every 5 seconds, a crash is reported to the police.  About 80% of these crashes are due to distractions.

With driving, the distractions can be in or out of the car.  As a driver, you need to always be alert, you never know what’s lurking around the corner…or who is stepping out in front of you from the curb.  You see, your teen isn’t the only one combating driving distractions…so are the other teens and adults in other cars…and not all of them are handling it so well.  The best driver is a defensive driver.  Liken driving to your teen’s favorite video game.  You have a set goal…to be somewhere…and you need to get there with as much health as possible while not losing points by hitting things!

#4  In 2012, 22% of young drivers killed in a car crash had been drinking.

If you think about it, that’s a high percentage.  Again, it may not be your teen driving…but another teen on the same road as yours.  Nonetheless, as a parent, you can do things to lessen the possibility of your teen drinking and driving.  Growing up I remember my parents telling my teen brother to call them if he drinks at a party and is driving.  My parents, who, by the way, were very strict, told him to call them no matter what the hour and they would come and get him.  And you know, one night he did call them and they picked him up.  He was not punished for underage drinking but instead home safe.  This left a lasting impression on me.

My kids are still young, but I have already been telling them to call me if they are ever with someone who is drinking or if they themselves are drinking and driving.  I want to impress upon them early that drinking and driving is a serious problem and we will always be there to get them home safely.

 One Teen Driver Safety Tool to Give You Some Peace of Mind

Back in July, we introduced the Safe Driver Car Connection  device. You plug it into your car’s computer system, through the OBD-II port (under the steering wheel), which helps monitor the driver’s driving, all from your smartphone.  It is the perfect tool to monitor your teenager’s driving and identify trends where your teen may be conducting unsafe driving practices.  Additionally,  the Safe Driver Car Connection device secures more information, such as:

Vehicle Location – You will know where your teen is in the car as s/he is driving.  The car will be tracked every 5 minutes.  Using the Car Connection software, you will be able to various paths the driver has taken each day.  Is s/he where s/he is supposed to be?  You’ll know.

Safety Zones – Safety Zones allow you to set up a geo-fence – or boundary – around a particular location.  Safety Zones are helpful in:

o  Putting a zone around your car at home so you know when your teen is leaving or arriving home.

o  Placing a zone around a place like the library, so you know when…or if…s/he ever arrives there as s/he was supposed to.

o  Setting up a zone on the outskirts of your city, so if your teen crosses it, you know they are driving somewhere they shouldn’t be.

o  Have you forbid your teen to go to a friend’s house, one whom is a bad influence?  Now you’ll know if he is obeying you.

Driver Scoring – You will actually get a score from 0 to 100 as to how good your driving is based on whether you are excessively speeding or breaking, how many sharp turns you take, or even excessive idling.   You can actually receive texts every time your teen performs one of these activities.  Just don’t call him/her while s/he’s doing it, as it will distract them.  🙂  This information, along with other driver habits and mileage, are used to calculate an overall score.

Vehicle Health – In addition to monitoring the driver, Safe Driver Car Connection monitors the health of your car.  Knowing the health of your car can help you make needed repairs before the car breaks down, which could cause accidents or stress for your teenage driver.

We actually tested the Safe Driver Car Connection  for a month and found it to be very useful and insightful.  Although my kids are still a bit young, I would totally use the Safe Driver Car Connection device in our car with a new driver in the house, it would provide so much peace of mind.  Most parents create some kind of contract for their kids’ cellphones.  The contract typically includes the right by the parent to read emails and texts unannounced.  Not because parents are nosy, but because they are looking for inappropriate conversations or pictures.  Our teens are too young to recognize something that my snowball into a big deal later.  It is our job as parent to help steer them.

The same is true for the car.  The car can cause physical damage or even death to others if it is not properly controlled.  Monitoring your teen’s driving in the car is just as important.  You teen should be aware that their driving is being tracked; you could even set driving privileges based on their Safe Driver Car Connection score, to encourage good driving habits.

I have seen other similar tools advertised, but none of them come close to the low monthly cost of Straight Talk’s device.  They offer service plans for only $10/30 days or $100/1 year.  This is a great deal, considering  the device  helps with  GPS positioning.  The Safe Driver Car Connection device retails for $139.99.  Both the Safe Driver Car Connection device and Straight Talk service plans can be purchased at Walmart stores, Walmart.com, and StraightTalk.com.

During National Teen Driver Safety Week, please, take a moment to have a conversation with your teen about his/her driving.  Review the statistics covered in this article and remind him/her again of the incredible responsibility a driver has to himself/herself, his/her passengers, and the others on the road.  Keep Calm and Text Not. Keep Safe.   #STSafeDriver #StraightTalkTesters

As a Straight Talk Tester, I have been given monthly service and a phone to use throughout the remainder of the year.  All opinions are my own.

*  http://drdriving.org/facts/