Teen Driver Safety Series

   Guide to Reducing Teen Accidents

     Eric Shishko, Senior Vice President, Insurance

There's a wonderful joke that goes "how many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?"  - Only one but the light bulb has to really want to change.  This joke is apropos of the question we are often asked "how does a parent get their teen to drive safely?" - Well it’s the same answer - its easy, just get the teen to want to drive safely!

No sarcasm intended it’s really that simple, almost all kids are capable of driving safely, they just have to want to.  So where's the challenge?

Well for one thing teen brains are a bit different from their parents brains, speaking for myself I know that my two daughters'  brains are much smarter than mine, but I digress.  The teen brain is different from an adult, it’s not yet fully developed, and specifically the center of the brain responsible for self-control is not fully developed. This is the area of the brain that is responsible for among other things controlling risk taking behaviors, controlling impulses, controlling emotions (we knew that!) and the ability to make intelligent judgments.

The teen years are full of exploration, peer pressure and thrill seeking all combined into a body and brain that is not fully formed and often does not appreciate the consequences of its actions.  If that isn’t enough to encourage risky behavior, most teens feel immortal, nothing will happen to them.

When this judgment challenged risk taking teen enters their car they are hardly the center of safety.  They will often fail to use seatbelts, speed, react to risky dares from friends, pass recklessly and worse, race others with the same level of undeveloped brains.

So with all that good news what's a parent to do?  Simply put, get involved, set rules and be a coach.  Most teens also want to be treated as adults, they want and will work for more freedom and responsibility.  This is the time to start setting the rules for the behaviors that earn those freedoms.  Driving, it is often said is not a right, it’s a privilege. 

Setting rules and coaching is difficult, yes, and it made more difficult if you as the parent simply don’t know what's going on when your teen leaves the driveway.   I'm sure there are many ways to get involved with your teen, and each family will have its own dynamics and way of dealing with the challenging and exciting teen driving years.  The common denominator for all families is communication, trust, and knowledge. 

Here's the tricky part - trust is a tough one, it’s very hard to build and easy to break.  It’s also a two way street.  If parents try to gain knowledge via a "big brother" approach it may be harder to maintain the trust – it’s more important for parents to create an environment where they empower their teens to want to drive more safely.  The more the teen is motivated to drive safely the more likely they are to want to drive safely.  And as Ronald Reagan once famously said "trust but verify".

Well are there any easier ways?  Maybe - it seems that if you do two things (at the same time) you may have a much easier time getting your kids to drive more safely: 1) create the environment that includes incentives (or occasionally disincentives) to behave the way that makes them safer drivers, and 2) empower them to make their own way as they seek the benefits or avoid the consequences to change.

Creating the environment - this story began with stating that people (teens) will only change if they want to.  They will want to if there is an incentive to change or in the converse; there is a consequence to not changing.  Parents create the environment by instituting benefits (more responsibility, more freedom, more allowance or more opportunity).   If you as a parent have the ability to both enable your teen to manage themselves and verify they are driving safely all the time, you have the ability to interact with your teen in a grown up way which rewards responsibly, empowers them to make good decisions, and creates awareness if they are getting off track.

In our next article we will dig deeper into the various approaches to getting your teen through the risky driving years.  

Questions and comments can be directed to: eshishko@greenroadtech.com