All those years you spend watching your kids grow should yield much joy, despite the typical challenges in parenting—many of which begin to occur during those teenage years. Kids are becoming more independent at that time, and a whole new level of stress emerges as they gain driver’s licenses and want to take off with the family car (a lot!). After all those years of being focused on keeping the little ones alive, despite all their seeming attempts to thwart you, watching them take off behind the wheel without you can be a new experience, to say the least.
Most teenagers in public school today around the US are given a comprehensive education in driving, learning about all the traffic rules and different information required to pass the driver’s test in any state. As teenagers take on the new endeavor of traveling alone and perhaps even providing their own transportation, the worry is that while they may understand how the highway systems work and are mastering the overall mechanics of driving, they do not have decades of experience like so many other drivers. And of course, part of the worry is other drivers. On any given day, we must worry about drowsy drivers, drunk drivers, distracted drivers, and the inexperienced drivers too.
It could be necessary to establish some new rules with your teenage driver. While you may have an established curfew or other house rules, it might be time to extend some to the car and driving privileges now also. Some parents do not allow their solo teenage drivers to take on passengers at all, while other parents may have teenagers dropping off their younger siblings to school each day. The key is to make sure that young drivers understand how important it is for one hundred percent of their attention to be focused on the task of driving—and that they are given the opportunity to do so. This may require guidance. Peer passengers should be limited to avoid distractions—and especially larger groups.
“In a study analyzed by NHTSA, teen drivers were two-and-a-half times more likely to engage in one or more potentially risky behaviors when driving with one teenage peer, compared to when driving alone,” states the NHTSA website. “According to the same study analyzed by NHTSA, the likelihood of teen drivers engaging in one or more risky behaviors when traveling with multiple passengers increased to three times compared to when driving alone. In fact, research shows that the risk of a fatal crash goes up in direct relation to the number of teenagers in the car.”
If you have been injured in a car accident due to the negligence of others, please call the law offices of Andrew ‘Pike’ Piekalkiewicz, PLLC as soon as possible at (713) 748-7453 or visit AttorneySgtPike for a no obligation case review. As a variation of the system employed in trucking cases, Sgt. Attorney Pike activates and deploys the Car Accident Response Team or C.A.R.T. ™ immediately after being hired and in appropriate cases. A team of specialized personnel trained in every aspect of car wrecks and injuries is deployed. Let us help you!
