Florida Injury Lawyer Blog
We just passed the midpoint of the period known as the 100 Deadliest Days for Teen Drivers. Looking back at recent trends, and many as 600 people have likely been killed in mostly preventable accidents involving young drivers since Memorial Day. According to the National Safety Council (NSC), education is one of our best defenses against these kinds of accidents.
Our Fort Myers car accident lawyers understand that there are currently 2 million teens under the age of 18 in the U.S. who are currently experiencing their first year of driving. That’s more than the population of Houston! Each year, drivers who are under the age of 18 are involved in nearly 1 million motor-vehicle accidents. That’s close to 3,000 accidents on any given day. As a matter of fact, these drivers are more likely to be involved in a fatal accident that any other age group of drivers.
In a single year, close to 4,000 people were killed in teen driver-related motor-vehicle accidents. That’s enough people to fill more than 50 school buses. Luckily, there are moves we can make to help to reduce the risks of these kinds of accidents.
The first thing you can do (and your teen can do) is buckle up. Believe it or not, more than half of teens who were killed in these accidents were not wearing a seat belt at the time of collision.
And it’s also important that we keep an eye on these young drivers when the sun sets. Close to half of all accidents happen at night — most before midnight.
We also want to make sure that they’ve got their cell phones put away. Talking on these devices (event hands-free ones) increases all drivers’ risks for an accident by about 4 times. And texting is even worse — increasing the risks for accidents by about 8 times. With that being said, would you believe it if we told you that close to 70 percent of all teens text while driving? They’re setting themselves up for disaster. But not if we step in first.
So how can parents help?
-Make sure you’re providing them with at least a half hour of supervised driving time each and every week.
-Sit down with your teen and collaborate on a parent-teen driving contract to set up some home driving rules and regulations.
-Limit a teen’s nighttime driving.
-Never allow your teen to drive with too many passengers. The more passengers in the vehicle, the higher the risks are for an accident.
-Since we have no cell phone laws in the state of Florida until October, make sure your teen knows the dangers of talking/texting on a cell phone, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Make sure they keep that activity for when they’re safely stopped.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a traffic accident, call Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner, Attorneys for the Injured, today for a free and confidential consultation to discuss your rights. Call 1-800-283-2900.
More Blog Entries:
Top Traffic Citations To Hike Insurance Premiums, Florida Injury Lawyer Blog, July 17, 2013
Florida Car Accident Risks in the Summer, Florida Injury Lawyer Blog, July 9, 2013
