Anyone who reads my blog knows that safe driving habits are near and dear to my heart. Many the post has been dedicated to ranting about how poorly people drive, especially in Sacramento where the red light running seems like it’s reached epidemic proportions.
One way to prevent bad drivers from being created is to create good driving habits from the start. The other day, I attended the Drive it Home tour presented by the Allstate Foundation and the National Safety Council. The goal of the presentation is to teach teens and parents of teens good driving habits. If one of these shows comes to your town, I highly recommend going. It was interesting and entertaining. Members of The Second City improv group performed, which is always a good time.
The Second City performers
Many of the tips can be used by drivers of any age:
- Scan the horizon; be aware of your surroundings.
- Keep enough space between you and the car in front of you.
- Don’t text, tweet, or call and drive. I put my phone in my purse, so the temptation to grab it and look at it is gone. Out of sight, almost out of mind.
There were some interesting facts from the Drive it Home event (some of which were scary):
- Half of all teen drivers will be in a crash before they graduate from high school.
- The first year a teen drives is the most dangerous.
- Inexperience is the number one cause of teen crashes, not risk taking.
While teens are distracted by passengers in the car, adults usually drive better when they have passengers. Think about it: If your kids, your friends, or your coworkers are in the car with you, you REALLY don’t want to get a ticket. How embarrassing! So you suddenly become the driver you should always be when you get behind the wheel.
The one thing that I thought was the best piece of advice was this: Parents should BE the drivers they want their teens to be. In other words, set a good example. Of course, that’s pretty much an all encompassing parenting philosophy, but that’s for a different blog post.
If you’d like more information about teen driving in California, Allstate Foundation has put together this fact sheet.
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.