Cars and kids have osha 10 been a potentially deadly duo for decades. Automobile crashes osha 10 continue to claim the lives osha 10 of 5,500 teenagers a year, making motor vehicle osha 10 crashes the leading osha 10 cause of death for 16- to 20-year-olds. osha 10 Despite the fact that osha 10 teenage drivers account for only 6 percent of the driving public, they are involved in a staggering 14 percent of all osha 10 fatal car crashes. Two-thirds osha 10 of the teenagers killed are male. Those numbers have also remained remarkably stable, even allowing for osha 10 population increases, and are likely to osha 10 remain so. But that doesn’t mean that there osha 10 aren’t steps that parents, schools, and osha 10 government agencies can and osha 10 should take to help keep osha 10 teen drivers safe.
Peer Pressures, osha 10 Cultural Messages
Perhaps chief among the reasons osha 10 for the high rate of crashes involving teenagers is the nature osha 10 of teenage psychology and culture.
Teenagers are passing through a osha 10 time of rapid change, a process accompanied by plenty of turmoil and lane changes on a osha 10 variety of fronts — physiological, hormonal, osha 10 emotional, social, and cultural. It is a time osha 10of passage, and the chief rite of osha 10 passage for American teens remains the driver’s license.
At just that moment — the 16th birthday, osha 10 as a rule — the challenges, dilemmas, osha 10 temptations, and distractions of becoming an adult become most intense. And that’s when we place our children osha 10 behind the wheel of a powerful machine capable osha 10 of moving at high speeds. Driving an automobile is a skill requiring total focus and constant close attention, osha 10 snap decision-making, and split-second osha 10 reactions.
Temptations and risks are also part osha 10 of the adolescent experience. The new driver takes the osha 10 wheel at just that time when peer pressure to experiment with alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs becomes especially osha 10 intense. Making matters worse, the osha 10 automobile provides the teenager osha 10 with the means to osha 10 and abuse substances in “private.”
Additionally, our entertainment media — TV, movies, osha 10 and an abundance of video games — osha 10 actually celebrate reckless driving, setting an example that’s all too tempting for teens to emulate.
Hormones and osha 10 Distractions
The role of the teen brain’s osha 10 physiological development cannot be underestimated. While the osha 10 findings are thus far inconclusive, some scientists argue that the prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain osha 10 responsible for decision-making — doesn’t fully develop until we reach our 20s. If this is true, we may be placing osha 10 our children in decision-intensive osha 10 situations before their brains are fully equipped osha 10 for those decisions.
All of those osha 10 factors face a completely inexperienced driver. Not surprisingly, younger teens are at greater risk of osha 10 causing crashes than older. A Canadian study found that the highest rate of teenage car crashes occurs within the osha 10 fi rst month of licensed driving. osha 10 Sixteen-year-old drivers cause 35 crashes per million miles driven, a rate osha 10 almost twice that of 18-year-olds, who cause 20 over the same distance. For the general driving population, the osha 10 rate is an average of four crashes osha 10 per million miles of driving.
The paradox of putting a teenager osha 10 behind the wheel of an automobile is nothing new. It wasn’t even new osha 10 when most of our parents were teenage drivers, for that matter. Nor is all of the turmoil, osha 10 uncertainty, experimentation, osha 10 and risk-taking inherent in being a teenager. It’s always been a volatile combination. But there are a variety of osha 10 factors that are new and widespread osha 10 among today’s teens, and which osha 10 further raise the risks of the car/kid osha 10 combination turning tragic.
Those factors include a range of osha 10 electronic technologies. Gone are the days when the in-dash osha 10 radio was the only electronic device to be found in a car. Cell phones and pagers, iPods and osha 10 other music players, GPS devices, and even DVD players are among the variety of osha 10 devices that turn our kids and their cars into mobile osha 10 media centers. These devices demand attention and distract from the demanding task at hand. Electronics add to the osha 10 longstanding appeal of the motor vehicle as a “ osha 10 .”
The Parent’s osha 10 Role
What’s a concerned parent — osha 10 and society — to do? Several things, as it turns out.
- Know your child. Be sure your child osha 10 knows what you expect of her or him behind the wheel. In part, this means osha 10 setting a good example with your own responsible driving. osha 10 Don’t talk on the cell phone, eat, or drink when you’re behind the osha 10 wheel, and be sure your children understand that you expect the osha 10 same of them.
- Set strict rules and osha 10 enforce them. Your teenage driver should know:
- Seat belts are osha 10 required. Some studies show that barely 60 percent of teens osha 10 wear safety belts.
- Where and when osha 10 she is allowed to drive. Nighttime driving is extremely dangerous osha 10 and should be limited.
- How many passengers osha 10 are allowed. The fewer, the better for both limiting distractions osha 10 and the temptation to show off in front of osha 10 one’s friends.
- Phones and osha 10 other devices, as well as eating and drinking, are not allowed while osha 10 driving.
- Alcohol and drugs are absolutely osha 10 prohibited (and not just behind the wheel!)
- Stay within the speed osha 10 limit and obey all traffic signals.
- Consider creating a written contract with your new driver. The contract should spell out your family’s osha 10 rules and regulations governing automobile osha 10 use and operation. It should also contain osha 10 appropriate osha 10 and rigorously enforced penalties for even minor violations.
- Practice with your teen in a safe osha 10 location. Don’t place all of the responsibility for driving instruction osha 10 on the driver-training program. Most osha 10 states’ driver training courses offer around 30 hours of classroom learning. Much of that time is taken up with osha 10 videos, with barely a fifth that much osha 10 used for behind-the-wheel training. Parents should do a lot of hands-on teaching to reinforce what their osha 10 teens are learning in class.
- Teach responsible osha 10 driving with all motor vehicles. The laws in most osha 10 states allows children younger than teens to osha 10 operate ATVs, mini-bikes, osha 10 and other off-road osha 10 vehicles, but it is best to wait until osha 10 your child has a driver’s l osha 10 icense to allow him to operate any osha 10 motorized vehicles. When he osha 10 is ready, be sure he operates them osha 10 responsibly, including wearing osha 10 appropriate safety gear.
Placing your child osha 10 behind the wheel of a motor vehicle is one of the largest steps a parent can take. It’s important that you take osha 10 the step with your child, helping to ensure osha 10 that when they drive away, they are osha 10 equipped to do so safely and osha 10 return home the same way.
This article was featured in osha 10 Healthy Children Magazine. To view the full issue, click here.Last Updated 11/2/2009Source Healthy osha 10 Children Magazine, Summer 2007The osha 10 information contained on this Web site osha 10 should not be used osha 10 as a substitute for the medical care osha 10 and advice of your pediatrician. There may osha 10 be variations in treatment osha 10 that your pediatrician osha 10 may recommend based on osha 10 individual facts and circumstances.
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