Health & Fitness
Today in Education: What Teenage Drivers Learn From Parents
Parents truly affect their teenagers' driving habits, according to high school driver education teachers.
Whatever anxieties parents have known from raising children, nothing compares to the day their teenagers earn a driver’s license.
The new-found freedom that excites teenagers so much turns parents into obsessive worriers. And it’s not without reason, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
- Motor vehicles kill more teenagers than any other cause in the U.S.
- Per mile, drivers between 16 and 19 years of age are four times more likely than older drivers to suffer a car crash. During the first year of driving, teenagers face the highest risk of a crash.
- When teenage passengers accompany a teenage driver, the risk escalates. This risk increases with each additional teenage passenger.
- Compared with other age groups, teens have the lowest rate of seat belt use. In 2005, 10% of high school students reported they rarely or never wear seat belts when riding with someone else.
- Male high school students (12.5%) were more likely than female students (7.8%) to rarely or never wear seat belts.
We can all relate. It takes time to develop the skills, patience, habits, and awareness to become a good driver. And just as they influence academic habits, parents affect how their teenagers drive.
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Sometimes parents model healthy behaviors but often, without realizing it, they convey the wrong messages. Teachers know this because students confess the driving sins of their parents.
“They’ll talk about their parents’ poor habits, that they don’t signal, use hand-over-hand steering, or check mirrors,” said Tim Tesauro, who teaches driver education at Richards High School. “I’ve even had students tell me their parents text and drive.”
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“A lot of students tell us that their parents are chronic texters,” said Brendan Meany, who teaches at .
Texting is especially risky: An 18-month study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that drivers who texted were 23 times more likely to crash than those who did not.
Steve Webster, who also teaches at Shepard, lists some of the worst habits that parents can model: “Driving with one hand, talking on and texting with cell phone, eating while driving. Breaking rules of the road such as rolling stops, right turns on red, cutting across private property to avoid a red light,” Webster said.
However, Webster and the other teachers stress that parents can bring out the best in their teenagers’ driving habits, too.
“When they are not driving, instead of letting them text or listen to their iPod, have them observe what you are doing and ask them questions,” Webster said.
He gives this example: “When you approach an intersection, ask them who has the right of way, where should they look for potential problems, where can they go if they have a problem (escape path). Make them verbalize what they are seeing,” Webster said.
Students need time to learn to look as far ahead as possible.
“This means looking through, over, and around the car in front of you. If you only react to the brake lights and turn signals, you are not giving yourself time to react to a dangerous situation. You want to constantly stress the need to look at least a one full block ahead at all times to gain valuable information earlier and to allow your peripheral vision to help you spot potential problems approaching from side streets or driveway,” Webster said.
It’s easy for parents to think that driver education teachers possess the most influence on student driving habits. In fact, mom and dad do.
Students receive about 35 hours of classroom instruction along with 6 hours of behind-the-wheel time with their instructor. Instructors challenge students with difficult situations and maneuvers that some parents feel uncomfortable doing.
Meany stresses that parents actually serve as the most influential instructor.
“Even though the instructor spends six hours challenging the student, in essence the parent is the primary driving instructor. Because the state requires 50 hours minimum of driving time with parents over a period of nine months, the parent drives with the student the most. It’s really important that the parent adequately prepare students for this awesome responsibility,” Meany said.
Teachers need parents to serve as partners in educating students. It’s really not that hard.
“They need to put the time in at home and actually practice with their child,” said Richards teacher Eva Ruzich. “Emphasize the right hand position, visual search pattern, speed control, and hand over hand turning.”
When driving with parents, students need time.
“Start small and work your way up. Take them in parking lots, cemeteries, just to get used to steering and controlling your speed,” Tesauro said. “Then work your way up. Parents have to make a conscious effort to not use bad habits they may have acquired. A child will drive the same way as their parents because they have been watching them do it their whole life. Practicing good driving habits as a parent is key.”
Some specific Public Service Announcements that address how parents can help students learn to drive safely:
Take a look at information on safe driving habits and statistics concerning teenage drivers:
http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/teen_drivers/teendrivers_factsheet.html
