Parents are driving force behind your poor habits at the wheel

WHEN it comes to dangerous driving, it seems most motorists are chips off the old block.

A study has found the majority of drivers pick up their bad habits from their parents.

So if you are tempted to speed, or swear at other drivers while your child is in the back seat, think again – it could set an example that influences them for life.

Drink-driving, road rage and speeding by a mother or father set a trend for their children, the research found. In a French survey of motorists aged 18-25, 65 per cent said they were influenced by their parents’ habits behind the wheel.

Their influence is greater than the driving instructor’s, according to the study for a foundation of the Vinci Group, which runs motorways in France.

Road rage is one of the most commonly learned behaviours among younger drivers. Out of 993 motorists in the survey, 77 per cent of those who ‘drove too fast’ said their parents did the

‘Bad behaviour is passed on’

same. And 75 per cent of those who said they got enraged while behind the wheel said their parents did the same thing.

Contempt for pedestrians is another trait that appears to be passed on. Some 72 per cent of drivers who said they did not stop for people crossing the road said their parents did the same.

Daniel Marcelli, a child psychologist, who ran a conference on the influence of parents on driving yesterday, said: ‘For 18 years, the child then the adolescent sees how his parents drive from the back seat. In primary school, notably, he or she observes and compares what the law imposes and what adults really do.’

Bernadette Moreau of the Vinci Autoroutes Foundation told newspaper Le Parisien: ‘We can help children become good drivers. Bad behaviour is passed on, but so is good [behaviour].’

Seventy-one per cent of drivers whose parents kept on going despite being extremely tired followed suit. As for drink-driving, motorists whose parents were in the habit of driving over the alcohol limit were twice as likely to do so as those whose parents drove only when sober.