Parents are being urged to model safe driving behaviors and help ensure their teens practice them, as the so-called “100 deadliest days” for young drivers returns.
The 100 days are between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The AAA said there are more daily deaths in crashes involving teen drivers during the summer months than the rest of the year because teens tend to have more unstructured time behind the wheel.
Parents are urged to consider having their teens complete a comprehensive driver education course as well as focus on the dangers of three factors that commonly result in deadly crashes for teen drivers:
- Distraction – Distraction plays a role in nearly six out of ten teen crashes, with the top distractions including talking to other passengers in the vehicle and interacting with a smartphone.
- Not Buckling Up – In research published in 2015, 60 percent of teen drivers killed in a crash were not wearing a safety belt.
- Speeding – Speeding is a factor in nearly 30 percent of fatal crashes involving teen drivers.
The AAA provides a free four-page guide to help parents coach their teens on driving safely “Coaching Your New Driver – An In-Car Guide for Parents”.
TeenDriving.AAA.com also has a variety of tools to help prepare parents and teens for the dangerous summer driving season.
