Equipping Parents with the Tools to Reduce Teen Motor Vehicle Fatalities
National Teen Driver Safety Week, Oct. 20-26
Many parents of teens don’t feel as though their teen listens to advice, but when it comes to safe driving, they do — and it could mean the difference between life and death. From 2004 to 2011, rates of motor vehicle crash deaths among 15-19 year-olds in Colorado dropped more than 67 percent. However, in 2012 Colorado experienced a 10 percent rise in teen fatalities from 2011.[i]
The Colorado Teen Driving Alliance (CTDA) needs your help to keep teens safe the on the road by enforcing safe driving practices at home. Teens who say their parents set rules and monitor their driving behavior in a supportive way are 50 percent less likely to crash and 70 percent less likely to drive intoxicated.[ii]
As a part of National Teen Driver Safety Week, the CTDA launched a new online parent course that provides step-by-step instruction on how you can support your teen through Colorado’s Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) laws, which are designed to phase-in beginning drivers. This course was prompted by a recent Colorado Department for Health and the Environment survey of over 700 parents of teens throughout Colorado that showed only 6.4 percent of parents could accurately identify each component of graduated driver licensing laws, including curfews, passenger restrictions and seat belt requirements.[iii]
Teaching teens to drive can be a daunting process, but the best way to put yourself at ease is to get up-to-speed on the process of getting a license, understand the specific restrictions for teen drivers and treat the learning process as a true partnership with your teen by helping each other navigate Colorado‘s laws and safety guidelines. Go to www.COTeenDriver.com to learn more about Colorado’s graduated driving licensing laws and to access the online parent course.