Excerpted from Parents Are The Key to Safe Teen Driving website.
Many parents don’t realize it, but the #1 threat to their teen’s safety is driving or riding in a car with a teen driver. The fact is, about 3,000 teens lose their lives every year in car crashes. That’s eight teens a day too many. The main cause? Driver inexperience.
CDC’s Parents Are the Key campaign helps to educate parents on their invaluable role in reducing risk and managing their teens’ driving behavior. Now, just in time for National Teen Driver Safety Week (October 19-25), CDC has launched a refreshed Parents Are the Key website, featuring new materials and resources in English and Spanish—including a Parent-Teen Driving Agreement.
Resources for Parents
Know the Eight Danger Zones
From nighttime driving to not using seat belts, understand the leading causes of teen crashes and injuries and rules you can put in place to help your teen stay safe on the road.
Enforce Your State’s Teen Driving Laws
All states have graduated driver licensing (GDL) systems, which help ensure teens can build driving skills under low-risk conditions. Studies show that GDLs reduce teen crashes.
Create a Parent-Teen Driving Agreement
Discuss your rules of the road with your teen, why they are important to follow, and consequences for breaking them. Create a Parent-Teen Driving Agreement that puts these rules in writing to set clear expectations and limits.
Share What You’ve Learned
Teen driving is new territory for parents, too. So spread the word about Parents Are the Key and the Parent-Teen Driving Agreement to other moms and dads in your community. It only takes a minute to share life-saving information on Pinterest, Facebook, or Twitter.