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| SOBRIETY SEATBELTS SPEED DISTRACTIONS | ||||||
By Leon Hurlburt, Coroner
This message is for anyone who drives or rides in a car in Huntington County.
We
are all at risk from a group of people who mean us no harm, but whose record
for car crashes in undeniable. Of course, I’m talking about new teenage
drivers. Per mile driven, teens age 16 to 19 are
four times more likely to crash than older drivers. Those crashes are
usually single-car crashes, but often they include others, which makes
this an issue of life and death for everyone who uses the roads.
Most parents would do anything – ANYTHING – to help their child avoid death in a car crash. But most parents have never been told what they can do. So they leave it up to fate.
But there is a lot that parents can do. This can be a dangerous time of year for fatal crashes, I wanted to share some of those action steps for parents right now. First, some background.
I won’t even bother with the statistics – every parent who has bought insurance for a teenage driver has probably seen them, courtesy of your insurance agent. Insurance rates are highest for teens, not because insurance companies are prejudiced; rather, because it is a mathematical fact that teen drivers are more likely than mature, experienced drivers to cause a crash.
This concerns all of us. It concerns me, because I am the county coroner, and a physician, and a parent and because I and my family use the roads every day.
Have you ever watched a team of young children who are
in their first season playing a sport? It’s the same whether they are
learning baseball, soccer, football or basketball. Their first season is
comical to watch, as the children awkwardly scramble and tumble around the
field of play with little regard to their position, their technique or their
teammates. Watch a team in its second year, though, and you’ll see a
profound change. By now, the children have learned the general idea of the
game and their own role on the team. Their skills advance rapidly with just
a year’s experience.
A similar growth occurs with new drivers. There’s no substitute for experience. A teen’s first months on the road are a lot like the child’s first season on a soccer team – except this time there is nothing comical about it.
Driving more safely is about managing risk. Nothing will remove the element of risk – driving at 50 mph in a 5,000 pound vehicle is inherently risky for anyone. We all take risks every day in order to come and go. It would be safer if we all walked from place to place. But we assess the risk of driving and decide that the benefits are worth it.
The point is that parents need to recognize the facts. When parents give a teenager the keys to the car, the likelihood of a deadly crash is far greater.
It’s not because teens lack the physical maturity for driving – quite the opposite, their reflexes are better than anyone’s. Their problem involves decision-making.
New medical studies suggest that the teen brain is not fully developed, and this may be a factor in their increased crash rate. The prudent thing for their parents to do is try to control that risk to the fullest extent that is practical.
How do you do that? By focusing on the things most likely to help prevent deadly crashes: seatbelts, speed limits and sobriety. A parent can’t help a teen driver avoid every possible mishap, but my experience as county coroner points to these three fundamentals for avoiding the worst type of crash – the fatal crash. Focus on these three — seat belts, speed limits, and sobriety — and your child’s odds improve.
Teens whose parents talk with them about safe driving are far less likely to die in a crash, according to scientific research. “Talk” does not mean simply saying, “drive safely.” It means in-depth conversations about habits on the road. It means driving together and coaching the teen’s driving style. It means insisting on a zero tolerance for speeding. It means requiring seat belt use 100 percent of the time as a condition for continued driving privileges. It means discouraging drunk driving by knowing where your child is going, not condoning underage drinking and offering to come and pick up your child if he ignores the other rules and drinks alcohol.
In addition to the three fundamentals – buckle up, slow down, drive sober – there’s one more thing parents can do to improve the odds for their children and for the rest of us who share the road. Remove distractions. Don’t permit your teen to talk on a cell phone while driving. Don’t permit your teen to drive with friends during the first year or two – this increases the crash risk greatly. Discourage your teen from playing music so loud that he could not hear a siren. Remove the stereo from the car if need be. And limit the amount of night driving during the first two years to essential trips for work or school. Driving in the dark is one of the major risk factors for teens.
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"Teens whose parents talk with them about safe
driving |
Can parents enforce these restrictions in the real world? Well, that depends on how hard you work at it. Parenting is always hard work. When your child was first born, your job was feeding and changing diapers, and you were always there for the task, no matter what. Your child doesn’t need you for that anymore; that job is done. Now, your job is helping to keep your child alive during a vulnerable period of life.
You can achieve greater success if you start the day a child gets her license. Set expectations and habits from Day One, and your job as your child’s foremost driving instructor becomes easier. Will there be lapses? Sure. But that shouldn’t stop you.
Will these parenting tools work? There’s a lot of research that says they will work.
Nothing’s perfect, but these smart steps will greatly increase the odds of managing the risks and keeping your child alive on the road.
I would rather greet your child with a warm hug or handshake and not with a gloved hand feeling coldness in the chill of the morgue.
