Safe driving starts with parents, but tech helps
Have you ever played one of those arcade games where you are driving on a race course?
For me, those games were the fuel of recurring stress dreams where I couldn’t keep the car on the road no matter what I tried. You see, I was a terrible teen driver. I had three “incidents” within the first year of having my license. Thankfully only one involved another driver, and none of them resulted in injury.
I was lucky.
Each day, approximately seven teens die and 685 are injured as a result of motor vehicle crashes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For teens ages 16-19, automobile crashes are the leading cause of death.
A lot has changed since I learned to drive in the mid-90s. From graduated driver licensing (going from learner’s permit to restricted license to full license) to automated driving technologies, such as lane assist and back-up cameras, it’s generally changed for the better, safetywise.
But even with new policies and technologies, one thing remains the same: the parent’s role in teaching their teen to drive.
Safe driving starts with the parent-child relationship. If you’ve ever been a teen learning to drive from your parent – or a parent teaching your teen to drive – you know that this process can strain even a good relationship.
Many parents are relieved thinking that their job as driving supervisor is done once the teen is able to drive independently. But that’s not the case.
Motor vehicle crash risk is particularly high during the first six months of driving without supervision. For teen drivers who have committed a traffic violation, that risk is even higher. In Franklin County, teens who have a traffic violation are required to appear in court with their parents. It’s here that they are introduced to Project DRIVE.
As part of the project, a research team led by Jingzhen Ginger Yang from the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital teaches parents ways to increase their teen’s motivation to drive more safely – even when the parent isn’t in the car. They also provide an in-vehicle device (driving tracker) that records teendriving behavior and sends summary reports to the parents.
With this tool, parents have objective data to use in conversations with their teen about their driving behaviors. The data is meant to empower – not replace – the parental role. Teens like the tool, too, reports Dr. Yang, because it also shows what they did right and can be a motivator of positive, as well as negative, feedback.
As a parent, I know I’ll be on the other side of the parent-teen driver line far sooner than I want to believe. Rather than waiting to see what improvements in policy and tools are waiting for me when that day comes, Dr. Yang and her colleagues suggest that it’s not too early to start improving my child’s safe driving behaviors – by modeling the behaviors I want my child to follow.
Safe driving starts with the parent, so let’s put our phones down, hit the brakes, and practice the safe driving behaviors that might save a teen’s life.
Abbie Roth is managing editor of Pediatrics Nationwide and Science Communication at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Safe driving starts with the parent, so let’s put our phones down, hit the brakes, and practice the safe driving behaviors that might save a teen’s life.