I am at the Governors Highway Safety Association conference in San Diego, where I had the chance to see and sit in the world famous Google self-driving car. It felt like standing next to the Wright Brothers on 1903!
I am pleased today to offer a guest post by Bill Akintoye of Shabana Motors in Houston, Texas. Bill talks regularly to teens and families about cars and responsibilities, and with a great passion and concern that is evident in his post below. Thanks Bill!
Talking to your teens about drinking and driving can be a difficult job; however, it is also an essential one. Statistics show that teens who talk with their parents about drinking are much less likely to abuse alcohol or drugs. However, before you begin any discussions with your kids, look over the following helpful tips.
It is important for you to realize that talking to your children about drinking and driving should not be a one-time discussion—it should be an ongoing conversation. You must also realize that in some cases, no matter how hard you try to steer your kids away from alcohol, they will drink anyway.
With that said, the first thing you will want to do before talking with your teens is to set some reasonable goals. In short, what do you want to accomplish by speaking with your kids? Of course, the first goal you will want to set is to teach your children how to say no to alcohol. Other goals you may wish to implement are as follows:
· Help them realize they can have fun without alcohol
· Teach them the consequences of riding in a car that is driven by someone who is drunk
· Teach them to avoid places where alcohol is served
· Help them get treatment if necessary
· Limit access to alcohol in your home
There are several things that you need to keep in mind when preparing to talk with your teens. These points are essential because they will help you have a more meaningful discussion and build a solid and trusting relationship between you and your kids:
· Choose a time when you and your teens are relaxed and not stressed-out
· Do not worry about discussing everything at once
· Be supportive of your teens no matter what
· Listen to your teens’ concerns and fears
· Encourage your teens to talk by asking open-ended questions
· Control your emotions and do not respond with anger
· Do not lecture or belittle your children
So, you think you’re ready to talk with your teens, but where exactly do you begin? There are many things that young people need to learn when it comes to alcohol and drinking and driving. You do not have to cram all of these topics into one conversation; just pick one or two and save the rest for a later date.
· Your teens’ views on alcohol and drinking and driving
· Alcohol abuse facts
· Driving under the influence (DUI) facts and statistics
· Good reasons to stay away from alcohol and drugs
· False feelings of happiness and satisfaction while drunk
· Detrimental effects of alcohol on the mind and body
· How to handle peer pressure
I am pleased today to offer a guest post written by Jim Donelon, President of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and Commissioner of the Louisiana Department of Insurance. Commissioner Donelon resides in Jefferson Parish, La., with his wife. They are parents of four daughters and grandparents to six granddaughters and two grandsons.
I’d like to thank Tim Hollister, the author of this blog, for inviting me to share my thoughts about teen driving on behalf of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). By educating teens and parents alike, our goal is to help save lives and cut insurance costs associated with teen driving.
Consider this as the summer heats up: more teenage motor vehicle fatalities happen in summer than any other time of year. That’s a sobering statistic, particularly at a time of year when teens want to hit the road with their friends. (See seven more eye-opening facts about teen driving here.) But with the freedom afforded by the summer months (and a new driver’s license), there also comes a great deal of responsibility — a level of responsibility that few teens are truly equipped to handle.
Safety is paramount, but responsible driving has cost benefits as well. Seasoned drivers know even a minor fender-bender can drive up insurance costs, so encouraging your teen to keep this in mind as they hit the road may offer additional incentive to exercise as much caution as possible. In fact, here are several tips to keep in mind as you and your teen select an insurance plan that’s affordable and provides sufficient coverage.
No matter how many precautions one takes, accidents happen. It’s a fact of life. To alleviate some of the uncertainty of what to do after an accident, NAIC’s free WreckCheck app is a useful tool for your teen’s iPhone or Android smartphone. WreckCheck walks users through the process of creating an accident report and documenting all photos and other information necessary to file an insurance claim.
For more resources to help guide these discussions with your teen, visit http://www.insureuonline.org/. There, you also can identify and contact your state’s insurance commissioner who can provide unbiased insurance information for your family and your teen driver.
As parents, we have the responsibility to get involved, educate our children about the risks and empower them to make the best decisions they can — both on the road and in the event of an accident. So do what you can to make our roads a little safer for everyone.
Consumer columnist Kevin Hunt of the Hartford Courant (“The Bottom Line”) recently wrote an informative column comparing how much household car insurance rates go up when a teen driver joins the family’s group of insured drivers. The basic answer — no surprise probably — is 79 percent on average, nationally, with several states averaging an increase of more than 100 percent. The full article is at http://www.courant.com/business/connecticut/hc-bottom-line-teen-car-insurance-20130720,0,634600.column. The column’s cited source is InsuranceQuotes.com.
Hunt explains that rates increase so much due (of course) to the high risks associated with teen driving (although it is interesting to note that teen drivers are generally regarded as having crash rates of three to four times experienced adult drivers, yet the rates at most are double). Also, the column explains that where one lives has big impact, because insurers impose higher rates in locations with “higher traffic density.” Rates in rural areas are somewhat lower, and higher in cities. This all makes sense.
The article goes on to list several things parents can do to reduce their premium sticker shock: good student discounts; having their teen take a defensive driving class, which can be done on-line and for as low as $8; shopping around; long-term policy holder/loyalty discounts; multiple policy discounts; and buying “an older safer model like an SUV, family sedan or midsize car.” This last choice is a trade-off between buying a newer car with more safety features and a bigger car that is more likely to remain intact in a crash. Also, older cars may not need as much collision insurance.
I am all for saving money, but parents: please don’t be misled by any of this. A good student may qualify you for an insurance discount, but academic success has nothing to do with your teen being a safer driver. The same goes for defensive driving classes; don’t be misled into thinking that if an insurer is willing to lower your premium by a few dollars, that it is because your teen is now a safe or safer driver. There is no evidence to support this proposition. Next, note the research, discussed previously on this blog, about the higher risks when teens own or have primary access to a car vs. sharing a car with other family members. The more access a teen has to a car, the higher the risk. Lastly, as between spending more money for a car with more safety features and buying an older car whose collision insurance is lower, this seems like a no -brainer: buy the safest car you can afford. Saving a few bucks on collision insurance is not worth putting your teen at higher risk.
In the past few months I have written several times about the dangers of joyriding — teen driving with no particular destination or timetable — and how the presence of passengers on a joyride is a formula for peer pressure that leads to risky driving behaviors. Those of us who follow the headlines of teen driver crashes have seen this pattern, and its often fatal consequences, again and again, especially in 2013.
I have also written about a particular, recent teen driver crash that involved five teens in a car on a Saturday night. As always, I have no reason to embarrass those involved or make things more difficult for the families, but the fact is that we are all safer when we take the time to look at and understand examples of teen driving that resulted in tragedy. For this reason, and in this spirit, I offer the following excerpt from a news article about the police report on this crash. I have omitted the names, because the focus is the peer pressure, not the people involved or the location. The last line of the article sent a shiver down my spine; it gives a voice to one of our worst fears:
[The survivors] both told police that the SUV’s passengers urged [the teen driver] to go faster over the hill on the way back to the party, according to the warrant. [One passenger] told police that the radio was blasting, and that the SUV hit the bump and became airborne, then landed and veered into trees. She said she felt as though she had blacked out, and when she regained consciousness, she heard [the driver] screaming, the warrant says.
Police estimate that the 2003 Ford Explorer was going 84 to 90 mph at the time of the crash on a street where the speed limit is 30 mph. After hitting the bump in the road, it flew for about 100 feet before landing and going out of control, the warrant says.
The left front fender hit several trees, causing the vehicle to spin counterclockwise, and the passenger side then struck a large tree, and the vehicle spun clockwise and lifted off the ground, the warrant says. The back bumper struck a tree at a height of about 6 feet, and the SUV landed with the left front fender against a tree.
“Oh my God, I think I killed my friends,” [the driver] told residents of the area who heard the crash and rushed to help, the warrant says.
One of the residents described the crash as “never-ending,” according to the warrant. Another resident told police that she asked [the driver], who had gotten out of the SUV on her own, why she sped up.
[Her] response, according to the warrant, was: “They told me to. They kept telling me to go faster.”