Teenaged Drivers

In one week, presuming he passes the written test, my youngest will be getting his driver's permit. I think he'll be an excellent driver. He's a good student, seems responsible and aware, and isn't the slightest bit cocky about this whole deal. In fact, he's a bit worried about driving, especially on the freeways. And he should be.

I don't mean to be depressing first thing on a Monday, but these are the scary stats from a teen car accident website:

Each year over 5,000 teens ages 16-20 die due to fatal injuries caused by car accidents. About 400,000 drivers age 16-20 will be seriously injured.

The risk of being involved in a car accident for drivers aged 16-19 is higher than any other age group. For each mile driven, teen drivers ages 16-19 are about four times more likely than other drivers to crash.

Teenagers are about 10% of the US population, but account for 12% of all fatal car crashes.

Drivers (both male and female) under age 24 account for 30% or $26 billion of the total costs of car accidents in the US.

The car accident death rate for teen male drivers and passengers is more than one and a half times female teen drivers. (19.4 killed per 100,000 male drivers compared with 11.1 killed per 100,000 female drivers)

The risk of a crash is much higher during the first years teenagers are able to drive.

And a Minnesota stat that is particularly frightening: In the last three years (2005-2007), 16 and 17 year-old drivers were involved in 116 fatal crashes, resulting in 133 death.

I guess I should be glad my son is still only 15, so we've got some time to instill good habits. And then once he does get his license, our state has instituted a few new laws to help keep teenagers a little more safe on the roads. For the first six months, he can only have one friend under the age of 18 in the car, can not talk on his cell phone AT ALL, and is not allowed on the roads between midnight and 5 am unless accompanied by an adult 25 or older.

These all are good rules for new drivers, but I still worry about all those other bad drivers out there. As a part of my son's classroom driver's ed program, parents and the prospective drivers were required to attend a driver's impact seminar. This involved spending two hours listening to how the lives of innocent people were impacted by the car accidents drunk drivers had caused.

The stories were traumatic and heart-wrenching. The lives of these people who have lost loved ones or are dealing with lifelong physical conditions as a result of these accidents will never be the same. But drunk drivers aren't the only ones who cause accidents. People texting while driving. Putting on makeup. Flossing. Reading. Plucking eyebrows. Inattentive driving scares the hell out of me.

So I've been paying much more attention to my own driving habits as a result of all this. My son is and has been watching me for a very long time. Wish I'd thought of this from the time my kids were babies. One thing I've learned? It's never too late to teach this old dog new driving habits. Remember when we never wore seat belts?

So what's the best advice you've ever been given about driving? Do you have any effective advice you gave your teenage driver? Any rules that seemed helpful and may have even saved lives?

And just to stir up a little debate - do you use your cell phone in the car? Text while driving? Do you think there should be stricter laws about cell phone usage while driving?

Helen