With National Teen Driver Safety Week (Oct. 16-22) in our rearview mirror, Nova presents a few more tips for parents to keep teen drivers safe:

 

-Require your teen to wear a seat belt on every trip. This simple step can reduce your teen’s risk of dying or being badly injured in a crash by about half.

-Don’t allow activities that may take your teen’s attention away from driving, such as talking on a cell phone, texting, eating, or playing with the radio.  Texting, which requires a driver to take his or her eyes off the road for seconds at a time, is particularly dangerous.

-Be sure your teen is fully rested before he or she gets behind the wheel.

In addition, you can help your teen avoid the following unsafe behaviors by setting a good example:

-Speeding: Make sure your teen knows to follow the speed limit and adjust speed to road conditions.  In 2014, 36 percent of teen drivers involved in fatal crashes were speeding.

-Tailgating: Remind your teen to maintain enough space behind the vehicle ahead to avoid a crash in case of a sudden stop.  Maintaining a four-second following distance in good conditions (and a six to eight second following distance in inclement weather) will allow a driver to slow down before a collision occurs.

-Insufficient Scanning: Stress the importance of always knowing the location of other vehicles on the road.

 

Although National Teen Driver Safety Week has concluded for 2016, the week’s focus on driving responsibly, avoiding distractions, and completing at least 50 hours of supervised practice with parents can keep young drivers safe throughout the year.