Tag Archive: driver
Buying the Right Car for Your Teen Driver
December 1, 2008
Most parents instinctively know that buying a sports car for their teen drivers would probably be a big mistake. A high-horsepower, easily maneuverable car could be a deadly temptation for a teen, especially combined with the teen’s feeling of invincibility and risk-taking behavior. But if your child is pressuring you for a sporty convertible, here’s some ammunition for saying no.
The first years of driving are very risky, no matter what your teen is driving. Teen drivers have the highest death rates in car crashes of any age group. Motor vehicle crashes are the number one cause of death among Americans aged 15-20.
And some cars are simply more deadly than others. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, small sports cars such as the Ford Mustang, the Chevrolet Corvette, and the Pontiac Sunfire have the highest death rates in crashes. “Vehicle choice does matter,” says J. Peter Kissinger, president and CEO of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. “Use it as another means to have a conversation with your teen.”
For more support, go online with your teen and check out insurance rates for their vehicle of choice. Explain that adding the teen to your policy will raise your rates no matter what she or he is driving. “Having a young driver added to your insurance will raise the rate 50 to 100 percent,” says Jeanne Salvatore, vice president of consumer affairs for the Insurance Information Institute. But the rates are much higher for vehicles considered high-risk.
Lastly, and perhaps most important, you are still the parent. Getting a driver’s license is an exciting rite of passage for your teen, but this new level of independence doesn’t end your primary job as a parent – to make the safest possible choices for your child.
Many parents, swinging to the other end of the pendulum, think an ancient clunker shaped like a tank would be safest for their teens. But experts demur, for two main reasons. First, the poor acceleration power of an older vehicle both makes it more difficult for teens to accelerate in some driving situations, such as lane changes and highway merges, and tempts them to simply drive faster to make up the difference in accelerating power. Second, older vehicles don’t have the benefit of modern safety features, such as airbags and electronic stability control.
So, with these two vehicle types out of the question, how do you select a safe car for your child?
First, consider size. A mid- or larger-size car could mean the difference between life and death in a crash. Though that’s true for drivers and passengers of all ages, it’s especially true for teens because of the high likelihood of driver error, which often leads to a crash.
Former National Highway Traffic Safety Administration chief Jeffrey Runge, a former emergency room physician, recommends vehicles weighing at least 3,300 pounds for teen drivers. This is a good guideline for parents who are unsure of which vehicle class to shop in for their teen’s car.
Here again, some parents go to the extreme and choose an SUV for their teen drivers. But most safety experts think this a mistake. SUVs have a high center of gravity and thus are more likely to roll over than other vehicles. Drivers aged 16 to 20 are more than twice as likely to be involved in a rollover in an SUV than older drivers. Second, SUVs can be challenging to handle in an emergency, making them a better choice for those with more driving experience than teens. And SUVs carry more passengers, which make the vehicle more unstable and can be highly distracting for a teen driver.
A second important consideration in the choice of a car for your teen is crash protection. Although a vehicle with front driver and passenger airbags should be relatively easy to find, consider side airbags that protect the head and chest. You’ll have to do some research, because not all car manufacturers approach this the same way. “The trend is now more curtain airbags for the head and more door-mounted for the chest,” says Mark Krawczyk, consumer information director for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Electronic stability control helps drivers maintain control of their vehicles during extreme steering maneuvers. Since teens are prone to overcorrecting in an emergency, it may be well worth it. The feature “cuts single vehicle crashes by more than half in our studies,” says Susan Ferguson, senior vice president of research for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Anti-lock brakes (ABS) also allow a driver to maintain control of the steering during emergency braking situations. Be sure to teach your teen to use anti-lock brakes properly in an emergency – hit the brakes hard and don’t let up. The pulsing vibration you feel means the ABS are working; some drivers instinctively let up on the brake when they feel it, so it’s important to practice not letting up on the brake so your teen will do the right thing in an emergency situation.
If your budget allows, check out the more advanced crash-avoidance technologies found on newer modes, such as emergency brake assist, lane departure warnings, and blind spot warnings.
And don’t forget the basics. All vehicles come with safety belts – make sure your teen wears them on every trip. Don’t forget to check the tires, headlight and taillights on a regular basis to make sure they’re in good working order.
Lastly, when buying a car for your teen, realize that you are entering a new era of driver training. Your teen will be excited and very probably overconfident in her or his abilities. Be sure to train them in the vehicle you choose. Require that your young driver demonstrate responsible behavior and meet experience requirements in diverse road conditions before heading out on the road alone. Check up on them frequently. Sign a teen driving contract to make sure your teen explicitly understands your requirements.
Help… My Teenager Drives Like a 70-Year-Old!
November 21, 2008
That will be the cry of parents everywhere if they do not enforce state laws – or their own house rules – prohibiting their teens from talking on a cellular telephone while driving.
Research published by the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) says that talking on a cell phone turns the reaction time of the average 20-year-old driver into that of a 70-year-old. Researchers observed study participants on four simulated 10-mile trips lasting 10 minutes each. Participants talked on a cell phone during half of the trips and drove without talking for the other half. Hands-free cell phones were used for the study. The results of the study indicated that young drivers were 18% slower in braking response time and took 17% longer to regain the speed they lost while braking when they were using the cell phone.
The difference seems small but is significant – an extra fraction of a second could mean the difference between life and death in an emergency situation.
Young drivers (the term typically refers to drivers under the age of 21) need to know that the fast reflexes and excellent coordination they take for granted can easily be compromised when they submit to the lure of using a cell phone behind the wheel.
And parents of young drivers need to know that enforcement of cell phone laws depends on the example they set for their own teens and enforcement of (or creation of, if there’s no state law) a strict rule about not driving while talking on a cell phone in their own household. Recent research indicates that enactment of a state law prohibiting cell phone use while driving is not sufficient to keep teens from doing so.
A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety/UNC Highway Safety Research Center showed that teenage drivers’ cell phone use actually went up after the state of North Carolina enacted a ban on cell phone use by young drivers. The ban on cell phone use by drivers younger than age 18 is part of the state’s graduated licensing program.
One to two months prior to the ban’s start on Dec. 1, 2006, researchers observed 11% of teen drivers using cell phones as they drove away from school in the afternoon. About five months after the ban, they observed nearly 12% of teen drivers using phones. Half of the teens surveyed by phone after the law took effect said that they had used their cell phones, if they had driven, the day before the interview.
Interestingly, both young drivers and their parents strongly support the law (74% of teens and 95% of their parents) and say that the problem is that it isn’t being enforced. But teens have a far better rate of compliance with other graduated licensing restrictions even when those laws aren’t well-enforced.
“Most young drivers comply with graduated licensing restrictions such as limits on nighttime driving and passengers, even when enforcement is low,” says Anne McCartt, Institute senior vice president for research and an author of the study. “The hope in North Carolina was that the same would hold true for cell phone use, but this wasn’t the case…Parents play a big role in compliance with graduated licensing rules.”
Studies show that teenage minds are predisposed to risk-taking. In 2005 and 2006, a series of risk-reward studies across a range of age groups funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and published in The Journal of Neuroscience showed that when confronted with risky choices, the brains of teenagers exhibit twice as much activity in the impulse area as adult brains, while the area that expresses restraint shows less activity. The study indicated that it takes until the early 20s for the two areas to reach parity.
This biological imperative to throw caution to the wind, combined with a teenager’s natural rebellion and peer pressure to be able to handle dangerous situations without exhibiting fear, is a deadly mix.
Enforcement of the law is typically the purview of law enforcement, not parents. But a teen may only be motivated to comply when the law and parental “house rules” intersect, as in the case of driving curfews that are part of the graduated driver’s license programs in most states and household curfews that parents implement for the health and safety of their children.
“Cell phone bans for teen drivers are difficult to enforce,” McCartt says. “Drivers with phones to their ears aren’t hard to spot, but it’s nearly impossible for police officers to see hands-free devices or correctly guess how old drivers are.”
And Barbara Harsha, executive direction of the Governors Highway Safety Association, says, “What [cell phones while driving] laws do is send the message to the parent more than anything else.”
When surveyed after the cell phone restrictions in North Carolina took effect, only 39% of parents said they were aware of the cell phone law, compared with 64% of teen drivers. If only 39% of parents even knew the law existed, how many parents had discussed the law with their children? If parents knew about the law, they could use it to support their own house rules. If cell phone use while driving hadn’t been banned by the parents previously, they could use the state law as support for a new house rule.
Perhaps most difficult for some parents is setting a good example for their teens. Parents must drive the speed limit, wear their seat belts, avoid driving distractions such as cell phone use, and drive defensively. They should pull over to use their cell phones or have a passenger answer it instead. Parents should use this time to point out drivers who demonstrate risky behavior, including talking on cell phones, and initiate a discussion by asking the teen driver to explain why it’s unsafe. Here is a Parent Teen Driving Contract with recommendations from the Driver Education Handbook for Parents to help you and your teen compose a practical contract of rules regarding driving expectations.