Being driven by teenagers: 0/10

Every high school goes over those videos about how dangerous teen driving is. And every time, the teens in the classroom think they are over exaggerating. Well I am here to tell you that they are most certainly not. I was in the backseat of a car being driven by a senior in high school last year. There was another one of her friends in the car with us, and we were heading to the mall. Now, while sitting in the back seat, I glanced up and saw this lady grab her lip gloss out her bag, Now, we are doing 20 miles over the speed limit, she, the driver, is laughing hard at the jokes the other is making, one hand on the wheel, with the other putting on lip gloss in the rear view mirror. Yeah, let us just say I do not do cars with teen drivers any more.

Teenagers receive graphic videos of damage done during car crashes, hour-long talks about the harm that could happen while talking on their phone, spend hours learning how to use a vehicle and studying the laws of the road. And yet, they still do not always listen.

There is only so much a school can teach a kid, only so much for the government to tell them, only so much a child can comprehend. But, there is so much more a parent can do.

There is not much out there that is marketed towards the parents of teens who are learning how to drive. Most of the warnings are directed towards the teenagers themselves. But it is the parents who are in charge of the teenagers, the ones watching them, teaching them, keeping them safe. In order to help teach teenagers how to be safe drivers, we have to direct some of the educational devices towards their parents.

There are many applications out there that monitor where teens are, how fast they are going, and what they are doing. But yet, I can not name more than two. There needs to be more talk about ways for parents to monitor their driving teens. Without any sort of moniteration, the parents have no idea when their children are doing something dangerous. In order for them to properly educate their child on safer driving techniques, they need to be able to know what techniques they are lacking on.

Some of these things that parents need to be aware of include phone usage while the cars are in motion, which can easily be monitored by these apps, jerking motions and fast speeds, which many cars already monitor themselves, and the radio volume, which many cars already have limits that they are able to be set too. Many vehicles already have many different technological advancements within them that allow them to monitor these things. The problem is, from my experience, most parents do not know about them.

Making more advertisements about apps and devices made to help parents monitor their children is the first step to increasing driver education. Driving education starts with parents. It is important to set a good foundation for people to learn off of and use. As people build a good foundation, their skills will increase.

No parent wants their child to be in a car crash, no matter the child’s age. It is a fear many parents have. One main cause of horrid crashes are people not paying proper attention on the road and losing control over their vehicle. Another being lacking proper skill to control the vehicle. If parents are able to properly educate their children on what they need to know, they will help their children learn the skills needed to control the vehicle and help keep their children from letting themselves become distracted. This will reduce some of the major causes in deadly crashes, reducing the number of deaths happening on the road. Which is something we all want.

There are other skills that teenagers can use to help themselves be safe. I, personally, always throw my phone in the back seat of the vehicle whenever I go to drive. This is just to keep me from even having the urge to check a notification. I know there are a few other skills that I can work on. I have not driven much in the rain, so, my parents will take me out to practice driving in not just rain, but other different environments that I could find myself driving in. Sometimes, the 60 hours needed to get a driver’s license can be completed before the child has the chance to practice in a multitude of common weather situations. I think more parents should take their children out driving for practice even after their children have gotten licenses in order to perfect their ability to drive in a constantly changing weather environment. There are a variety of different weather patterns a person has to drive in. Rain, fog, snow, these are all things that happen, but these are not required to learn within the 60 hours in the state of Maryland. Every person on the road that knows how to drive properly in all different weather conditions will increase the safety of the road for everyone else on it, and themselves. I want my driving to be as safe as possible, so I will continue to practice and learn from my parents even after I gain my license. My parents are the ones I learn from, they are the ones teaching me the rules.