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What You Need To Know Before Your Teenager Takes The Wheel

The day your teenager obtains a driver’s license is thrilling. After all, you won’t worry about dropping them to school or outings. However, it’s equally scary because the crash rate for teens is nearly three times higher than for drivers of other ages.

Nevertheless, the likelihood of a crash reduces as young drivers acquire experience. While you might not be present in the vehicle to offer advice and assistance, you could promote safe driving and set limits. Here’s what you should know before your teen takes the wheel.

Graduated licensing decreases teenagers’ driving risk

Graduated licensing permits teenagers to practice driving under supervision before obtaining their license and limits driving after they’ve obtained a license. Today, you’ll find that all states have some aspects of graduated licensing.

Graduated licensing seeks to offer beginner drivers with a chance to obtain experience under conditions that decrease risk. While all states have it, the systems differ in strength. In most American jurisdictions, the policies only apply to applicants below 18 years.

A graduated system comprises three stages: a supervised period; an intermediate license, which restricts driving in high-risk circumstances-the teen obtains this license after passing a road test. The last stage is where the teen obtains a full-privileged license.

All states permit some exceptions to allow novices to drive for particular purposes throughout restricted hours. Evaluations of these systems indicate that they decrease crashes considerably.

Teens should avoid late-night driving

Your teenager should avoid late-night driving or in adverse weather. While these scenarios are crucial for teenagers to obtain practice, you should be present under such conditions until they’ve mastered driving. Learning how to drive alone is hard enough, but sticking to daylight hours will help your teenager build his skills safely.

Driving with peers is hazardous

An additional teenager passenger heightens your teenager’s crash likelihood by 44%. Once your teen obtains his or her license, he or she will want to give rides to friends, but this shouldn’t be encouraged for a least six months after obtaining a license.

 

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Inexperience and Immaturity

Both experience and age have significant effects on teens’ crash risk. Research reveals that young drivers usually overestimate their driving capacities and simultaneously misjudge the hazards on the road. Teen drivers’ immaturity is evident in risky practices, for instance, speeding.

Moreover, teens’ inexperience behind the wheel makes it hard for them to identify and react to hazards. Traits of teenagers’ deadly crashes include:

Speeding

Excess speed is an aspect in more than ¼ of teenagers’ fatal crashes.

Driver error

In comparison to adults’ deadly crashes, those involving teens frequently entail driver error.

Single-car crashes

Numerous fatal crashes involve the teen’s car only. Teen drivers typically lose control in high-speed crashes.

What you should do before your teen gets behind the wheel

Identify the licensing laws in your state

There’s a high chance the laws concerning new drivers have changed since you took the driver’s test. Numerous states now adopt graduated licensing, which can comprise restrictions on passengers and limited driving hours.

Have a safety net for the new driver

Your vehicle might have a service that tracks its average speed and location, can contact emergency services at the push of a button, and even report diagnostics to your computer or phone. If not, consider investing in such a system. At a small monthly fee, you can achieve these and obtain maintenance alerts.

Have a mechanic examine your vehicle

You want to make sure your teenager will be safe while on his or her own. Therefore, you should schedule a tune-up for the tires, brakes, and other significant systems and fix or replace anything that requires it.

Final Thoughts

Although it can be an exciting time for your teen to obtain a driver’s license, you must exercise caution as a parent to avoid fatal incidents. Before your teenager gets behind the wheel, this information will prove invaluable.


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