Have You Asked Your Teen Driver The Hard Questions? #nationalteendriversafetyweek

After Your Crash Injury Blog

Parents, have you recently presented scenarios to your teens or kids to discuss their options for handling difficult driving situations? Often times, these situations come up out of the blue and our kids are unprepared to answer. Talking through what they might encounter helps them know what they will do instead of entering into a dangerous situation because they were unsure how to get out.

Recently, the “IKnowEverything.com” program conducted game show-style events at a geographically representative sample of high schools nationally. During this time, the program asked students questions about driving scenarios. Forty-three (43%) percent of the students reported wishing they had more knowledge on how to handle different driving situations when they first started driving.

The IKnowEverything survey results revealed why conversations between parents and teens are important:

• 25% did NOT know how to handle a passenger who is drinking in the car
• 27% do NOT know how to safely get home when their driver has been drinking
• 38% are NOT sure how to handle a friend distracting them while driving
• Half (53%) of teen drivers say sometimes they find themselves in a situation behind the wheel they are not prepared for; 35% report they always find themselves in such situations and 12% report feeling this way every time.

Shocking Statistics:

Mile for mile, teenagers are 3 times as likely to be in a fatal wreck compared to all other drivers.
59% of teenage passenger deaths occurred in vehicles driven by another teenager.

http://iknoweverything.com/resources/statistics