{"id":2364,"date":"2014-12-31T01:55:46","date_gmt":"2014-12-31T06:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wordpress\/?p=2364"},"modified":"2015-01-02T01:08:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-02T06:08:00","slug":"talk-to-your-teen-drivers-about-the-5-to-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=2364","title":{"rendered":"Talk to Your Teen Drivers About the \u201c5 to Drive\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Parents: Set the Rules Before They Hit the Road<\/strong><\/p>\n

Talk to Your Teen Drivers About the \u201c5 to Drive\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Learning to drive is very exciting for teens, and a driver\u2019s license is a giant step toward independence. But when a teen driver is getting ready to hit the road, a parent\u2019s job isn\u2019t done. In fact, talking to your kids about the dangers of driving is one of the best things you can do to keep them safe. Tragically, many parents just assume their teens get this information elsewhere, so they don\u2019t have the conversation.<\/p>\n

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death<\/strong> for teens 14-18 in America.\u00a0 In 2012 alone, 2,055 teen drivers were involved in fatal crashes, and 859 died.<\/p>\n

Every parent should talk to their teens about the rules of safe driving, but a recent survey shows that only 25 percent of parents have done so. \u00a0It can be difficult to talk to teens about anything, let alone a serious topic like safe driving. Many parents don\u2019t know what to say, or give up if they feel like they\u2019re not being heard. \u00a0In order to provide parents with the tools, resources, and words they need to keep their teens safe, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has teamed up with state and local highway safety and law enforcement organizations on the teen driver safety campaign \u201c5 to Drive\u201d. The education and awareness campaign identifies the five most important rules all teen drivers need to follow.<\/p>\n

I encourage you to get the facts, start talking to your teen about the \u201c5 to Drive,\u201d and Set the Rules Before They Hit the Road.<\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. No Drinking and Driving.<\/strong> Compared with other age groups, teen drivers are at a greater risk of death in alcohol-related crashes, even though they\u2019re too young to legally buy or possess alcohol. Nationally in 2012, 28 percent of the young drivers (15 to 20 years old) killed in crashes had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .01 grams per deciliter (g\/dL) or higher.<\/li>\n
  2. Buckle Up. Every Trip. Every Time. Front Seat and Back.<\/strong> In 2012, of all the young (15- to 20-year-old) passenger vehicle drivers killed in crashes, more than half (55%) of those killed were not wearing seat belts.<\/li>\n
  3. Put It Down. One Text or Call Could Wreck It All. <\/strong>In 2012, among drivers 15 to 19 years old who were distracted in fatal crashes, nearly 1 in 5 were distracted by their phones. This age group had the highest percentage of drivers distracted by phone use.<\/li>\n
  4. Stop Speeding Before It Stops You.<\/strong> In 2012, speeding was a factor in almost half (48%) of the crashes that killed 15- to 20-year-old drivers. By comparison, 30 percent of all fatal crashes that year involved speeding.<\/li>\n
  5. No More Than One Passenger at a Time.<\/strong> Extra passengers for a teen driver can lead to disastrous results. Research shows that the risk of a fatal crash goes up in direct relation to the number of teens in a car. The likelihood of teen drivers engaging in risky behavior triples when traveling with multiple passengers.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Please talk to your kids\u2014this week and every week\u2014about how to be smart and safe behind the wheel.<\/p>\n

    For more information about\u00a0 the \u201c5 to Drive\u201d campaign visit www.safercar.gov\/parents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    ###<\/p>\n

    Contents of this press release comes from http:\/\/www.trafficsafetymarketing.gov\/teens<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Parents: Set the Rules Before They Hit the Road Talk to Your Teen Drivers About the \u201c5 to Drive\u201d   Learning to drive is very exciting for teens, and a … Continue reading Talk to Your Teen Drivers About the \u201c5 to Drive\u201d<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2365,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[788,787],"class_list":["post-2364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2","tag-safety-information","tag-teen-driving"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/NT01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2364"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}