According to the National Safety Council, there are 100 days in the middle of the summer where most teen driving accidents and deaths occur. The end of the school year means freedom, and teens who have recently received their licenses often use this time to explore and socialize with friends. For many teenagers safety is not a priority, and they fail to remember that accidents can happen.
The period of time between Memorial Day and Labor Day is called the 100 Deadly Days for teen driving, and is the unofficial beginning and end of summer. During this time, hundreds of teenagers die on roadways in preventable car crashes. Each year, traffic safety advocates announce the 100 deadliest days and work hard to make teens aware of the dangers that are so present during this time.
Parents play an important role in helping their teens to realize the dangers of driving in the summertime. Unfortunately, parents can't save their children from dangerous accidents in all circumstances. When possible, parents should remind their children to drive safely and let them know that they should never jeopardize their safety on the road in order to "have more fun" or do something risky.
There are a variety of ways that teens can increase their safety during the 100 Deadly Days. One of the first recommendations by the National Safety Council is for teens to avoid driving with friends. In some states, teenagers are not allowed to carry juvenile passengers in their cars for certain amount of time. Regardless of whether this law is in place in your state, new drivers should never be permitted to drive their friends.
Friends can be a major distraction, and studies show that adding just one teen passenger into a car can increase a teen driver's crash potential by 48 percent. Peers are naturally distracting to new drivers. Some teens may want to impress their friends and speed or drive recklessly as a result. Others will simply get caught up in a conversation or in goofing off with other teens in the vehicle and will fail to watch the road ahead.
Teens should also silence or turn off their cell phones when on the road. Regardless of the season, driving with a cell phone in hand is dangerous. Teenagers are constantly texting and talking on their phones, and this enhances their possibility of an accident. The National Safety Council writes that driving is not the time for texting, ichatting, updating statuses, surfing the web, or looking at Instagram. Instead, teens should be fully focused on the road with their phone placed in a location where they cannot reach it from the driver's seat.
Teenagers also need to use seat belts, as these can save lives. Teens have the lowest seat belt usage rate among all drivers in America, but if they use these safety restraints it could protect them from death in the event of a collision. Youth also need to be very cautious when driving on the roads at night. Oftentimes new drivers don't have the experience necessary to drive in the nighttime.
Parents should discourage their kids from driving late at night, especially on rural roads. Some states have curfews in place to make sure that teenagers are off of the roads by 10 p.m.
Even teenagers that have their licenses may be at risk to an accident, so experience is critical. If you are a parent and are concerned about your children's driving habits, you may want to consider enforcing 30-minute training sessions with your case to help them improve their motorist skills. With supervision and caution, teenagers can make it through the 100 deadliest days for car accidents in the United States the summer.