Parental Wisdom® by Tina Nocera

In a January 18th post to this blog, I wrote about how the most terrifying seat in the world was you in the passenger seat next to your teen driver.

There is another seat even more frightening; where your teen is the passenger in a friend’s car. Your child’s friend may be a good kid, but not a great driver. We have to arm our children to speak up if they feel their friends are driving recklessly and learn as much of cars as they can from sources as the Automotive News Center, so they can use this knowledge to know when the car is failing and more and avoid accidents and other issues. This is where peer pressure is a good thing.

I am not a fan of statistics since I don’t think teens listen to numbers, but I am not writing to your teen; I am writing to you. There is one more interesting statistic, but let’s phrase it in the form of a question. What is the most dangerous time for your teen to drive? Between 3 and 5pm weekdays.

Use this information as a way to start your own conversation with your teen. Watch the Ad Councils video and give your teen a way out of dangerous situation.

Bravo to the Ad Council for starting this terrific campaign which encourages teens to be the spokesperson against reckless driving.

Here are some facts from their site:

• Teens Will Listen
Eight in 10 teens say that if a friend told them their driving behavior made their friend feel uncomfortable, they would listen. (Source: Ad Council)
• Influence on Friends
Nearly 70% of teens say they have a lot or some influence to stop their friends from driving recklessly when they are a passenger. (Source: Ad Council)
• Concerned About Friend’s Driving
Four in 10 teens say that in the past six months they have been in a situation when they felt concerned that a friend’s driving behavior put them at risk as a passenger. (Source: Ad Council)
• Risky Driving Behavior
Three in 10 teens say that in the past six months they have been in a situation when their own driving behavior put them at risk. (Source: Ad Council)
• Issue Importance
Nearly 80% of teens call the issue of youth reckless driving prevention extremely important to them personally. (Source: Ad Council)
• SUV Rollovers
In 2000, SUVs had the highest rollover involvement rate of any vehicle type in fatal crashes – 36%, as compared with 24% for pickups, 19% for vans and 15% for passenger cars. (Source: U.S. Department of Transportation)
• Speeding
Sixty-seven percent of high school drivers say they speed and 27% say that speeding is safe. (Source: SADD/Liberty Mutual study)
• Cell Phones
Sixty-two percent of high school drivers say they talk on a cell phone while driving and 24% say that talking on a cell phone is safe. (Source: SADD/Liberty Mutual study)
• Safety Belts
Sixty-seven percent of high school drivers say they wear their safety belts while driving and 75% say that not wearing a seatbelt is unsafe. (Source: SADD/Liberty Mutual study)
• Afternoon Crashes
Nearly as many 16- and 17-year-old drivers are involved in fatal crashes between 3 and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday as on Friday and Saturday nights between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. (Source: AAA)
• Passengers and Crashes
Crash rates increase drastically for 16- and 17-year-old drivers with every additional passenger in the car. (Source: AAA)
• Male Death Rate
In 2002, the motor vehicle death rate for male occupants age 16 to 19 was nearly twice that of their female counterparts. (Source: CDC, 2004)
• One out of Five Teens…
One out of every five licensed 16-year-old drivers will be in a vehicle crash. (Source: IIHS)
• Teen Deaths
In 2003, about 44% of all teen deaths were attributed to vehicle crashes – more than triple the number of teen suicides and more than double the number of teen homicide victims. (Source: NHTSA)
• Teen Passengers
In 2002, 61% of teenage passenger deaths happened when another teen was driving. (Source: IIHS)
• Teen Crashes
Per mile driven, sixteen-year-olds are involved in more than five times as many fatal crashes per mile driven as adults. (Source: NHTSA)
• Teen Percentage of Crashes
In 2003, teenagers accounted for 10% of the U.S. population and 13% of motor vehicle crash deaths. (Source: NHTSA)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 at 10:20 am and is filed under Communication, Safety, Teens. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.