Safe Teen Driving Blog

A proposed law restricting the number of teen passengers a driver under 18 is allowed to transport has been held up in the Florida House Of Representatives. The bill, which would prevent underage drivers from having more than one underage passenger in the car, was originally presented by Representative Kelly Skidmore, a Democrat from Boca Raton. The reasoning behind writing this piece of legislation was to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities due to distractions caused by peers while driving.

Many other states have successfully passed similar bills and have already seen a difference in the numbers of accidents and other statistics related to teen driving and the distraction of additional passengers. Here are some staggering statistics that inspired the Florida legislator to write this legislation:

• 36 states, plus the District of Columbia, have passed graduated licensing laws restricting the number of passengers a teenage driver may transport.
• The accident rate for 16 year old drivers was reduced by 36 percent since state governments began passing these laws.
• In 28 percent of fatal accidents involving 16-year-old drivers, there were at least three passengers in the vehicle.
• In the year 2000, among 13-19 year old vehicle passengers, 63 percent of fatal accidents happened when other teens were behind the wheel.

The law in Florid would only permit drivers under the age of 18 to drive with one passenger under the age of 18, with the exclusion of siblings and their own children. Those who are caught with more passengers in the car would face a $60 fine and 3 points on their license.

Arguments against the bill varied, but the main fight was from the Representatives in the business community. They left as if passing this bill would make carpooling to work by teenage employees difficult. Many argued that excessive amounts of gasoline would be wasted and traffic would increase, as these drivers would have to drive to work in other vehicles. While the points are certainly valid, other legislators feel as if the benefits would outweigh the inconvenience, by keeping more teen drivers alive.

Teach your teen how to become a Safe Driver with the Driver Education Handbook for Parents developed by Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Certified Chief Instructors.

Labels: florida, graduated.license, passenger.limit

Making sure your teenage driver is aware of the dangers of drinking and driving is always a first priority when preparing them to take to the roads. However, many parents and educators forget to stress the importance of driving without distractions. While drunk driving causes many accidents each year, just as many accidents and deaths are caused by teenage drivers who are distracted by cell phones, radios, and conversations with their passengers. All of these accidents could have been easily prevented.

State Farm has teamed up with a group of students in an Algonquin, Illinois high school to educate teenage drivers on the dangers of driving while distracted. Backed by a grant of $92,000 from State Farm Auto Insurance, this student group has started a program called "In the Blink of an Eye." The group of students involved as come up with various strategies to help educate fellow students throughout the area about the importance of seatbelt use and the dangers of distracted driving.

Students have set up parking lot checks to remind their peers to buckle up and turn off their cell phones while driving. They have also put together presentations about safe teenage driving, including a safety education night for students currently enrolled in driver education classes. This offers both students and parents a chance to learn more about the effects of distracted driving, making the program a community wide effort. With a successful program established in their own school, they are about to take their message on the road.

Coming in April 2008, there will be a conference for schools in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, giving other students and educators the information and ideas needed to set up a similar program in their own schools. The conference will be free to any schools within these states. State Farm and the creators of "In the Blink of an Eye" hope to spread the message about safer teen driving and reduce the number of fatalities among teenage drivers.

When your teenage driver gets behind the wheel of a car, you want to make sure everything goes right. You want insurance that they won't have too many friends in the car or otherwise act reckless. What if there was a way you could have that extra insurance without paying out more for your teen driver?

Luckily for parents, there is a way to get that insurance: by asking every driver your teen comes in contact with on the road to be an extra set of eyes when you can't be there. Debbie Swartz, creator of 1-866-4-R-TEENS bumper stickers, has the answer you are looking for. Debbie, a mom with teenage drivers, started this non-profit organization in order to offer bumper stickers free of charge for any parent wishing to keep an extra eye on their teen's driving.

Much like the "How's my driving?" bumper stickers we see on so many tractor trailer trucks today, the bumper sticker for teen drivers displays the same message, along with a phone number and 4-digit vehicle code for callers to report reckless driving as well as contentious teen drivers. Besides offering other drivers a way to keep parents informed of a teenager's driving skills, the bumper sticker also alerts law enforcement that the person behind the wheel is someone's inexperienced teenage son or daughter.

With so many ways to monitor drivers today, the free service Debbie's 1-866-4-R-TEENS program offers can be a valuable tool for many parents looking for a reason to feel their child is being safe on the road. The bumper stickers give parents a feeling of relief and also may influence the teen behind the wheel as well. If a caller reports a teen's erratic driving behavior a written report is immediately sent to the parent, allowing the parent to address the behavior before it becomes a serious problem.

The hope behind the website and bumper sticker program is to not only fill a need for parents to feel safer letting their teen on the road alone, but to also make teens more aware that they are being watched. The teen driver's behavior on the road could earn them the possibility of having the keys taken away or extra praise from mom and dad without them ever having to ride along with them. The need for the website and its program helps parents answer the ever-popular question by parents, "I wonder if my teen driver is okay on the road".