Safety Tips for Teenage Drivers During National Youth Traffic Safety Month
With springtime comes proms, graduations and the end of the school year. This can become a distracting and dangerous time for young drivers. They’re already at a much higher risk of causing a car accident due to inexperience and poor driving judgment. And they’re statistically far more likely to become seriously injured in the warm weather months ahead.
According to the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning, the top five “hazardous actions” contributing to fatal automobile crashes involving teen drivers are:
1. Speeding,
2. Careless/negligent driving,
3. Driving left of center,
4. Reckless driving, and
5. Failing to yield.
A lesser-known yet startling statistic: Nighttime fatal crash rates for 16-year-old drivers are nearly double the daytime rates. In fact, our own personal injury lawyers have created rapid response teams of investigators for nighttime fatalities caused by truck accidents and other crashes. Sadly, we notice that far too many of these non-truck accident fatalities involve younger drivers, and often alcohol.
The marked increase auto accidents can mar this special time in young people’s lives forever. To help prevent this, I’d like to give you some tips to protect your young driver. They include:
1. Restricting teenage drivers from driving under risky conditions such as late at night, in bad weather, and on highways with friends in the car (young drivers are almost twice as likely to cause an accident when there are other teenagers in a car).
2. Requiring seat belt use at all times.
3. Minimizing distractions by forbidding your young driver’s use of a cell-phone or sending or receiving text messages. There is no reason – ever – for a teen driver to text while driving a car.
4. Limiting the number of teens permitted in a car or truck when your teen driver is at the wheel.
How to Keep Your Children Safe
While these traffic statistics and tips will provide parents with some basic knowledge, there are numerous other factors involved in your child’s safety that can help to keep your child safe.
That’s why the auto accident attorneys of Michigan Auto Law have written a guide, “How to Keep Your Children Safe: Simple Steps to Protect Your Loved Ones from Hidden Dangers.” With this guide, you will discover dangers that pose substantial risk of death and injury to children and teenagers, as well as suggestions for avoiding these hazards.
Watch for our publication, to be released in June. It will be available through our website, maldev3.wpengine.com, as well as by calling our office at (248) 353-7575.
Steven M. Gursten is recognized as one of the nation’s top experts in serious car accident and truck accident injury cases and automobile insurance no-fault litigation. Michigan Auto Law has received the largest reported jury verdict for an automobile accident case in Michigan in seven of the past 10 years, including 2009, according to published year-end verdicts and settlements reports.
Photo courtesy of Creative Commons, by BdwayDiva1
Related information:
Top 10 Michigan Auto Accident Guide
Uninsured Motorist Coverage: A Must Have
Do I Have a Car Accident Case in Michigan?
Michigan Auto Law is the largest law firm exclusively handling car accident, truck accident, motorcycle accident and bus cases throughout the state. Call (248) 353-7575 if you’ve been injured in an auto accident, and would like to speak to a lawyer.
