Set Up a Safe Summer for Your New Driver

The hot summer months are historically known to be dangerous for new drivers. Roadways are crowded with eager vacationers, inexperienced teens and homebound college students. Teen drivers have crash rates nearly 4 times those of drivers 20 and older per mile drive. High crash rates and the freedom of summer can be a deadly mixture.

What can you do to keep safe your teens who just received their drivers’ licenses? Here are some tips to help you get started.

Preparing Your Teen for Driving this Summer

Safety starts at home. As a parent, you are always teaching your child lessons, and this doesn’t stop when you are driving a car. Your own actions, such as wearing a seatbelt, driving the speed limit and obeying traffic laws, will dictate what type of driving skills your teen uses on the road.

Although being an educator is an important piece of parenting, setting strict rules for teen driving is also important. A few areas to discuss this summer include:

• Creating a curfew for weekends and weeknights
• Limiting the number of passengers allowed in the vehicle
• Setting boundaries on driving distances
• Remembering to be aware of their location at all times

These points of discussion will help you to establish safe teen driving habits this summer.

What type of vehicles should you consider?

Providing your teens with safe cars that will protect them from serious injury if they are in a collision, is important. Many new drivers inherit their parents’ old, used car as their first mode of transportation. Before allowing your child to drive any used car, it should first be inspected.

If you are purchasing new or used cars for your teens, safety should come first. Newer cars can come equipped with enhanced safety features that older cars might not have. Researching car safety ratings and reviews will help you choose a vehicle that is safe and reliable on the road.

How to monitor your child’s driving habits

Recent advancements in technology allow you to stay on top of your teens’ driving habits once they get their driver’s licenses. Listed below are a few of the best car trackers for parents to use.

• Lemur Vehicle Monitor. This device is effective in tracking the driving habits of new teen drivers. Lemur provides you with a small module that you insert into the vehicle and a small key fob. It is able to track the vehicle’s top speed, distance traveled and instances of hard braking.
• Groove. Texting and driving is one of the leading causes of fatal accidents. Groove allows you to stop all incoming texts, phone calls and notifications while your teen is driving. Once the driver leaves the car, his or her phone will receive any messages that were missed.
• OnStar Family Link.New drivers tend to enjoy exploring new places. With Family Link, you can install a device that will track the vehicle’s exact location at all times. You can feel safe knowing exactly where your child is.

Reducing the risk of your teens being involved in a serious car accident this summer can be avoided by educating them on safe driving habits, providing reliable cars and installing devices that allow you to track your new drivers’ behaviors.

If you or a family member become injured in an accident through no fault of your own, contact KBG Injury Law to get the Results You DeserveÒ.