What can you do to help reduce the number of teen driving deaths in your state? Plenty! Start by spelling out the danger to your kids. Get tough at home by making sure your teen always wears a seat belt and doesn’t drive late at night. Follow our tips to teach your teen to drive.
Next, do your part to lobby for stricter state laws. Visit congress.org to find your state legislator and join Reader’s Digest in the fight to make driving safer for teens by downloading a letter you can send.
Check out the resources below for more information.
Driving Skills for Life
This site features tips and an educational game designed to teach safe driving skills.
Road Ready Teens
You’ll find AAA-sponsored driving guides for parents and teens, an educational game and more.
A Look at Graduated Drivers Licenses (GDLs)
Get answers to many of your questions about GDL laws from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plus print an informative brochure.
Partners for Safe Teen Driving
Get safety tips, see more resources and debunk five common myths about teen driving.
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Take Action to Reduce Teen Driving Deaths
Find out how to lobby for strict laws and get tough at home.
From Reader's Digest
My RD A/C No - 0-010-524-756-3 won a car & 5 Lacs certified that your letter but not reply. I am Win or not win ?
One of the things I'm doing is sharing Reader's Digest! Kids often reject parental wisdom. . .that's part of growing up and establishing independence. But we started early with our teen. She was given a used golf cart for a pre-teen birthday. She gets to drive it on marked trails. We demonstrate the effects of mistakes. We work on self-esteem and peer influence. And we don't plan to buy her an eye-candy car! Parents who give kids dream machines frequently find themselves living a nightmare.
How about we reduce highway deaths - period? If teens began driving with responsible habits instilled in them, there would not be this problem. But our society treats operating a motor vehicle just like we do sex and drinking: it's soooooooooo much fun and everyone should just enjoy themselves!
Respond with your own comments here. Sorry RD, you got it wrong. In the good ole state of Georgia, you can ride all day long WITHOUT a seatbelt as long as you are in a truck. If you are 18 years old or older you ARE NOT I repeat ARE NOT required to wear a seatbelt. And what do most 18 year old boys drive in Georgia. A cussed truck. Let's get real with this mess of a law. I have written and or emailed everyone I can think of.
Happy to see this article. We need to take personal responsibility for how our teens drive. I have been riding in the front passenger seat for the last five years and expect to be there for the next ten (my youngest is just eight). So far my teens have had no major incidents with or without us parents. Minn. doesn't have a graduated driving law but we act like it does and the Lord has blessed us.
yo i waz chillin wit my cool kids cj and jc, all smokin crack and i was all like, dudeee.. i wanna drive. so theys all in my hood crackin like yo, you do that. so i pic up dis ride from a little girly down da hood, she shot me, i surrived, shot bac,little aunt suzie comes, shot him too, drive away, that be called a drive-by. so change the age, i dont care. peace out. be back soon. aight. holla out!
so heres how it goes down.... if you change the age limit to drive, i will personally grab a knife, take it into my room and... look at it. i will think of all the things i can do with it and then.....i will chop my teddy, anitra, into tiny pieces and make a sandwich. congratulations tony on your new twins!
If they keep pushing back the age that teens are allowed to get their licenses, they will be going off to college with little driving experience. Kids are most wild in college, and it would not be smart to have them as new drivers at college, away from home and in a new place. Some parents depend on their teens getting their licenses as soon as possible so they can work or transport siblings. Making stricter laws may work in some states, but I hope they don't overdo it.
I personally think they are getting too strict in the state of California with drivers licenses for teens.