Danger on Wheels

Hardly a week goes by anywhere in the U.S. without a heart-wrenching news story about a serious -- sometimes fatal -- automobile accident involving teenage drivers. Whether they’re sneaking in a wee-hour joyride or simply on their way to school, teens are much more likely than any other age group (including the elderly) to get involved in traffic accidents.

No matter how you look at them, the statistics are staggering. Teens make up just 7 percent of licensed drivers, but account for 14 percent of all automotive fatalities and more than one in five of all accidents. Nearly 6,000 young lives are lost on our nation's roadways each year, and about 600,000 teens are injured. In fact, auto accidents are the leading cause of death among people between the ages 15-20 -- an epidemic on wheels.

Such numbers -- combined with gnawing doubts about a young teens' ability to handle the challenges of driving -- are enough to strike terror into the heart of any parent whose child is approaching driving age. “It’s an anxious time,” says Terrill Bravender, MD, MPH, chief of adolescent medicine at Duke. “You’re basically sending your youngster out into the world in control of a several-thousand-pound machine.”

As if that stark fact weren’t frightening enough, a grab bag of contributing factors further stack the deck against kids who drive. For starters, young drivers are simply inexperienced: they lack the seasoning that comes from years of maneuvering a car and avoiding road and traffic hazards. More subtly, the adolescent brain -- despite its often uncanny savvy -- is still undergoing significant changes as neural connections grow and form. In fact, research has shown that the areas of the brain used for rational behavior and sound judgment are still literally being wired throughout adolescence.

That, in turn, makes teens especially vulnerable to the power of peer pressure. Teens spend more time behind the wheel at night, when their risk of dying in an accident is quadruple that of daylight hours. All too often, they drink and drive -- alcohol has been implicated in about one-third of all fatal accidents involving teenagers. Equally dangerous is what they don’t do: only about one third of teen drivers routinely buckle up.

It’s enough to make concerned parents want to lock up their children and throw away the car keys. Of course, in a world where kids cherish their driver’s licenses as badges of independence--and where their busy folks are often delighted to be relieved of driving duties -- that’s not realistic. But before you simply wave goodbye and cross your fingers, says Bravender, you should realize that you have a lot more control over your teen’s driving habits than you (or they) realize.

“You still have a lot of influence over your children during the teen years,” Bravender says. “But you need to realize that at this point it’s not what you say, but what you do, day in and day out, that counts.”

Job number one, says Bravender, is to make it clear that driving is a privilege, not a right. “I’ve had parents complain that their kids have had multiple tickets or been in several accidents,” says Bravender. “I’ll ask them, ‘Why is he still driving?’ and their response is, ‘But then I’d have to take him to school.’

“But letting a child keep driving after an accident or citation sends the message that anything goes,” Bravender says. “A child using the family car should suffer the consequences if she messes up. Teens should also have to bear part of the cost of operating that car and repairing any damage they cause. You can believe they’ll treat the car with more respect -- and they’ll be safer as a result.”

Recent research backs Bravender up. In one study, parents of young traffic offenders were expected to provide driving practice, implement rules, and develop appropriate rewards for safe driving, as well as identify and enforce consequences for misbehavior. Nearly 80 percent of teen drivers whose parents intervened avoided a second citation.

Perhaps the most effective strategy of all, Bravender says, is to model good driving habits by being the sort of driver you’d like your teen to be. “You can lecture kids all you want about obeying traffic rules, not speeding, and wearing a seat belt,” he points out. “But if your children see you do the opposite, that’s what they’ll do, too.”

In other words, your parental attentions are more essential than ever as your child takes this step toward independence. “You’ve got to stay engaged with your teen during this crucial time, as difficult and frustrating as that often is,” says Bravender. “The stakes are just too high not to.”

Safe Teen Driving Tips

• Encourage teens to use their driving privileges to pursue activities they enjoy, so they aren’t tempted to use driving itself as an antidote for boredom.
• Communicate. Most parents interact with teens less than 15 minutes a day, often in the form of orders or demands. Build a healthy relationship with teens by listening empathetically to what they say and avoiding the impulse to lecture, yell, or judge.
• Obtain teens’ input and buy-in on family road rules. You’re not trying to control your kids so much as help them build the skills to control themselves.
• Demand honesty from your teens about where they’re going and with whom. Firmly enforce consequences for dishonesty or destructive driving behaviors.
• Be a safe driver yourself. According to a recent study conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, teens whose parents have crashed are also likely to crash.