Tuesday, June 9, 2009

The Problems Related To Teenage Driving

By Nathan Lewit

Teenage driving is a serious issue of parents worldwide due to regular occurrences of teen crashes and mishaps on the road. The important thing is to understand the reasons for such occurrences and reduce the risk taking habit of the teen drivers. The other areas to improve are to reduce the exposure to any sort of risk and teach the required driving skills to these teenagers.

Simply increasing the driving age from 16 to 18 years may not be the right solution to reduce teen crashes. It will only impact several sectors of the automobile industry like manufacturers, insurance agents, driving instructors and gas companies. Both auto manufacturers and insurance agents will see a sharp drop in their revenues due to these measures.

It is important to educate the teens regarding driving rules and make them adhere to these rules in a disciplined manner. It has been found that lack of skills, risk taking behavior, and immaturity are the main reasons that lead to teen crashes. So it is important for the parents to guide their children to avoid such behaviors and develop sufficient skills before they hand them the car keys.

The teen fatality is found to occur on Fridays and weekends between 6 PM to 6 AM. Some of the reasons attributed to this are driving while intoxicated with alcohol, distractions on the road, and not wearing of seat belts.

There are several safety rules laid down by the authorities for the safety of these teenagers but they don't follow these in a proper manner. Teenagers are supposed to wear seat belts, avoid using gadgets like phones, and avoid driving at midnight except for some practical reasons and drive with a parent or instructor for the first three months after receiving their driving license. The lack of discipline amongst teens to follow these rules is a major concern.

It is important for the parent to join their child's driving classes. They should also monitor their child's progress and help them gain the necessary knowledge as being taught in the class. The parents should make their child aware of defensive driving techniques. Another crucial thing for the parent is to share knowledge with their child regarding all their driving experiences. This will help the teenager be prepared to handle any extreme situation.

The risk taking behavior of the teenager also requires modification. It is an important job for the parents to understand the reasons that could make their child take certain risks which could prove fatal. Then a plan should be prepared to analyze the behavior of the child and make them aware of the ramification for these actions. It should be noted that a teenager's body develops many changes during these growing years and the hormonal activities of the body can influence certain unwanted decisions. So it is important to make the teenager aware of the problems that they might face if they take such risks and try to modify their behavior.

It is important that these teenagers join the right driver education programs which are certified and authorized with quality instructors. This will help the teenager grasp the right kind of knowledge required to be safe on the road. The parent then has the responsibility to monitor the progress of the child and make them aware of the fact that this is just the first steps towards becoming an expert driver.

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