If you’re a parent, then you’ll probably teach your child many things. You might teach them to share or to speak politely when someone addresses them. When they become a teenager, you’ll likely teach them to drive.
In 2021, Florida had over 800,000 drivers aged 15-19, and many other heavily populated states have similar numbers. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, those stats might make some drivers nervous. They know that teenagers cause many car accidents. Even the ones that received excellent driving lessons from their parents might cause a wreck if they’re not careful.
While the stats reveal that teen drivers cause more than their share of accidents, you might not necessarily understand why. It’s worth talking about, though, so let’s dive into that right now.
Teens Often Let Their Phones Distract Them
As a parent, you can talk to your teens about responsible driving till you’re blue in the face. If they’re receptive and take driving seriously, then hopefully, they won’t cause an accident. However, if you have a teen who’s not the most responsible, they could become a menace when they get out on the road.
For instance, they might let their smartphone distract them while they’re driving. Distracted driving causes injuries and deaths daily, and even some adults sometimes try to text or answer their phones while driving.
However, teens seem to often have a fixation on their phones that can become problematic when they first get a driver’s license. You can tell your teen to never use their phone while driving, but if someone calls or they get a text message, they might not wait till they park the car and turn off the engine before they respond.
A teen who tries to talk on the phone or text while driving can easily cause a wreck. If that happens, you must hope they don’t seriously injure themselves or someone else.
They Might Let Their Friends Distract Them
A teen driver might also let their friends distract them if they are all riding in the car together. When a teen gets their license for the first time, maybe they’re also the first in their friend group to get one. If that happens, then the rest of the crew might rely on the first driver among them to act as chauffeur.
If so, then you might have a car loaded up with four or five teens at the same time. Maybe they are clowning around or roughhousing. That quickly gets dangerous if their horseplay distracts the driver. It’s another situation where a teen might hit another car or an inanimate object because they’ve momentarily taken their eyes off of the road ahead of them.
They May Not Remember All the Rules of the Road
You might also have a situation that comes up where a teen driver gets their license, but they haven’t encountered every situation yet that might happen on the road. They might not know what to do if they encounter a sudden rainstorm or high winds. Maybe they won’t slow down and exercise enough caution in such a scenario.
You may also see a situation where a teen driver doesn’t remember or doesn’t know what they should do at an intersection with multiple traffic lights and cars approaching from several directions. Maybe the teen won’t wait for a green arrow before turning left. If so, they might strike a vehicle coming from the other direction that had the green light and the right of way.
A teen driver might cause an accident if they’re trying to enter the highway and panic rather than smoothly entering the flow of traffic. Getting onto the highway without any issues takes practice. If you have a teen who is not yet a very confident highway driver, they might slam on the brakes at the last moment and cause a driver behind them to hit their vehicle.
They Often Speed
Some teen drivers inherit a parent’s sense of responsibility. They don’t drive over the speed limit or do anything similarly dangerous. However, if they have other teens in the car egging them on, they might forget or discount the lessons that you taught them.
A teen driver might start speeding on the highway or on local roads if they’re showing off. They may feel like there’s no harm if they don’t see any police cars nearby.
If they’re driving faster than they should, they might cause an accident that way. If they’re exceeding the speed limit, they might hit a car ahead of them if they’re tailgating the other driver. They may even lose control and hit a highway embankment or barrier if they’re trying to see how fast the car can go.
They Might Ingest Drugs and Drive
You will probably talk to your kids about drinking alcohol or ingesting other drugs, not just while they’re driving but at any time. They might say they understand. However, once you’re not around and they’re surrounded by friends, they must deal with peer pressure.
That’s not always easy. If their friends call them names when they’re all doing something and your teen won’t try it, they may eventually decide that a little experimentation won’t hurt.
If they attempt to drive after drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, or trying some other drug, they might cause a wreck. You’d hope they would know better, but some teens can forget themselves if their friends convince them they’re not taking a major risk.
If the police pull your teen over and they have alcohol on their breath, the cops can arrest them. In some cases, though, that’s not as bad of an ending to the story as what might happen. So many teen drivers cause accidents with fatalities following one poor decision. It starts with a couple of beers and ends in heartache and a mistake they can’t take back.
Make sure to emphasize to the teen driver in your family how much such decisions matter.
