What Is The Problem With Teenage Drivers?
Teenage driving is the cause of worry for lot of worldwide due to incidents of teen crashes leading to fatalities for their children on the road. The main objective towards understanding the problems related to teenage driving is to reduce the teen driver’s exposure to any sort of risk, develop the necessary driving skills in them, and changing their risk taking habit.
The solution doesn’t lie in changing the driving age from 16 to 18 years. This will only have an influence on the Automobile Industry and service sectors linked to it leading to job losses. There will be a large decrese in revenue for all the companies in the Automobile industry or service sectors linked to it. It will only create a problem for manufacturers, gas companies, insurance agents, and driving instructors.
The lack of maturity and skills in the teenager along with the risk taking behavior has been the main reason for such accidents. The teens also show lack of discipline while following safety rules. Thus it becomes necessary to train teenagers about all the road and safety rules and make them used to adhering to these rules. The keys to the car should only be given by the parent when the child avoids risk taking behavior and obtains the required driving skills.
Most of the teen fatalities that have occurred in the road are due to factors like not wearing of seat belts, drunken driving, distractions on the road, crashes happening on Friday nights, and weekends mainly between 6 PM to 6 AM.
The safety rules are not followed by the teenagers in a proper manner. They don’t drive with their parent or instructor for the first three months after getting their driving license, avoid driving at midnight except for some purposeful reason, avoid usage of gadgets like phones, and wear seat belts. The lack of discipline and non-adherence to safety rules has been a major reason for teen accidents.
In order to reduce risk for their teen children the parents should also be a part of their driving skills learning program. The parents should partner with their child to teach them defensive driving techniques and driver safety rules. The parent should also share their own driving experiences with their children. This will help them become more mature and prepared to handle any adverse situations.
The parents should also help in modifying the risk taking behavior in their children. The chemical reaction of hormones and other pattern changes in the teenagers’ body makes it difficult for them to avoid their risk taking behavior. So it is important for the parents to formulate a plan and approach regarding traffic safety for their children. It is necessary to understand the situations where the teenager might take risk for the sake of enjoyment. The parents should then help these teens to carefully analyze the repercussions of their act. This might lead to modification of the risk taking behavior for the teen.
It is important for teenagers to join the best driver education program. The onus lies on the parents to make their children join an authorized and certified driver education program which can help them develop their driving skills. The quality of the program and instructors approach is important for helping the teenager grasp the required driving knowledge. It is important to monitor the progress of the teenager on a daily basis. It is important to explain to the teenager that the driver program is just the beginning of their learning curve to become an expert driver.
