Teen drivers: When helicopter parenting is critical
- BRUCE FEILER
- Apr 21, 2016
- 3 min read
Being a hands-on parent can help keep a teen safe on the roads.
Spend enough time having parenting conversations and certain patterns emerge. In nine out of 10 cases, if you’re talking about highly motivated parents, the message to Mom and Dad is: back off, chill out, park the helicopter.
Recently, I stumbled onto a topic in which the advice was the exact opposite: teenage driving.
“If you’re going to have an early, untimely death,” says Nichole Morris, a principal researcher at the HumanFIRST Laboratory at the University of Minnesota, “the most dangerous two years of your life are between 16 and 17, and the reason for that is driving.”
Among this age group, death in motor vehicle accidents outstrips suicide, cancer and other types of accidents, Morris says. “Cars have gotten safer, roads have gotten safer, but teen drivers have not,” she says.
In 2013, just under a million teenage drivers were involved in police-reported crashes, according to AAA. These accidents resulted in 373,645 injuries and 2,927 deaths, AAA says. An average of six teenagers a day die from motor vehicle injuries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More isn’t better
When I asked Morris what parents should be most worried about, she answered definitively, “Other passengers.” Adding one nonfamily passenger to a teenager’s car increases the rate of crashes by 44 percent, she says. That risk doubles with a second passenger and quadruples with three or more.
Most states have what are called “graduated driver’s licenses,” meaning some combination of learner’s permit, followed by a six-month or so intermediate phase, followed by a full permit. Restricting the number of passengers who are not family members is among the most common regulations in the early phases, but Morris says most parents disregard the rule once that time expires.
That’s a huge mistake, she says. “Even if your state drops the non-familiar-passenger restriction after six months, parents should make it their own rule,” Morris says.
Distraction is highest when boys ride with other boys, she says, whereas boys actually drive safer when girls are in the car. Altogether, passengers are a greater threat than cellphones, she believes. “Your cellphone isn’t encouraging your teen to go 80 in a 50, or 100 in a 70,” she says.
Technology distraction
Phones are still a huge problem though.
Charlie Klauer, a research scientist at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, has done three studies in which she places video cameras in cars and monitors drivers for a year. Even when teenagers know they’re being monitored, they still use their telephones for texting, talking or checking Facebook at least once every trip, including ones only a few blocks.
“Teens’ prevalence for engaging their devices is higher than other age groups,” she says, “and their risk for being involved in a crash when they do is higher.”
Even if the phone is tucked away in a pocket or backpack, enticing beeps or ringtones make it hard to resist. Klauer recommends blocking all notifications before even getting in the car. “You’re more likely to do it if you’re sitting calmly at home,” she says. “In the moment, it’s really hard not to look at the screen.”
If your child insists on using the phone for navigation or listening to music, the research suggests there’s only one safe place for it to be: in a dock, at eye level, on the dashboard. The worst places? The cup holder, the driver’s lap, the passenger’s seat.
“The real enemy is taking your eyes off the forward roadway,” Klauer says. “Anything more than two seconds is extremely dangerous. The longer you look away, the worse it gets.”
Though she’s skeptical young drivers actually need navigation for most trips, Klauer says audible, turn-by-turn directions are preferable to paper maps because there’s less rustling in your lap. Similarly, streaming music has advantages over flipping radio channels, as long as the driver is not selecting each individual song.
Basic safety
Just because technology has introduced threats doesn’t mean the old threats like drinking or driving at night have gone away. In 2013, almost a third of teenage drivers killed in crashes had been drinking, the Transportation Department found. Also, safety experts say, driving late at night is much more dangerous than during the day.
Jennifer Ryan, the director of state relations at AAA, told me the organization recommends that teenagers not be allowed to drive between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. for the first six months of having their license. “We encourage parents to go beyond that if they don’t feel their teen is ready,” she says.
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