Understanding Teen Driver Risks
16 Jul 2018
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), six teens between the ages of 16 and 19 died every day in 2015 from motor vehicle injuries. Those numbers accounted for 2,333 teen deaths and 235,845 injuries requiring emergency department treatment.
Despite the fact that teens in this age group only account for seven percent of the U.S. population, they accounted for 11 percent of the total costs of auto accident injuries.
CBS goes on to report that there have been more than 14,000 fatal crashes involving teen drivers in the past five years.
For parents preparing to send their teens out onto the road, these numbers are nothing short of alarming.
Why Do Teens Pose Increased Risks?
There are many reasons teens seem to present greater risks behind the wheels of cars. Most of those increases begin and end with a lack of experience behind the wheel.
The solutions many states have come up with to reduce these number is to increase the driving age and employe graduated driver laws. While some argue that gives them less preparation behind the wheel before heading off to college and work, it also gives them less training in avoiding distractions and reducing their own risks as drivers.
Specific risks teen drivers face include the following:
- Using mobile devices while driving. Talking or texting can be lethal behind the wheels for drivers of all ages.
- Driving over the speed limit. The CBS report states that half of teens drive 15 miles per hour above the speed limit.
- Distractions in the vehicle. This comes in the form of other teens, radios, applying makeup, and these distractions are in addition to cell phones.
- Unfortunately, it happens. Despite all the options available for teens to seek sober rides home, some drive while intoxicated causing accidents that injure themselves, their friends, and random strangers on the road. Sometimes fatally.
What’s a Parent to Do?
You can’t go everywhere with your teen, but you can have the next best thing if you use GPS tracking for teens. GPS teen tracking allows you to track the speed your teen is traveling, swerving, weaving, aggressive driving, and other behaviors that indicate your teen may be distracted behind the wheel.
Additionally, you can set up alerts to notify you if your teen’s vehicle has gone beyond certain geographic boundaries or is being operated outside of designated hours. With some systems, you can even remotely disable the vehicle so that your teen must wait for you to arrive and drive them home safely.
It’s not the bubble you’d like to protect your teen in, but GPS tracking for teen drivers is the next best thing.
Give us a call here at LiveViewGPS at 1-888-544-0494 to learn how GPS tracking for teens can help give you peace of mind.
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