PEMCO: Texting While Driving Rate Up

PEMCO Insurance issued a news release, August 25, that reveals more Washingtonians are texting while driving. The PEMCO Insurance Northwest Poll, conducted by FBK Research, shows that of those who use electronic devices, more of them – 18% – admit to reading or sending text messages while driving than in February 2008, when only 6% said they did so. Ironically, the same poll found that increasing numbers of drivers are concerned that texting while driving is a dangerous distraction.

Under Your Influence, a website dedicated to parents of teen drivers maintains the following:

They'd probably never tell you this but your teen really does look up to you. Under the layers of music, school activities, problems with friends, rebellion, struggles, and joys is your teen, and they need you to guide them in what they should and should not do. It's pretty clear that car crashes are the number one cause of death among teens, and if we all just ignore the problem, it's not going to go away.

Moral of the story? Monkey see, monkey do. It's still dangerous for you, even as a parent, to be texting while driving. It's even worse to do it in front of your teen.


Under Your Influence also gives these practice tips on driving with your teen:

1. Don't be pushy
2. You are in control
3. Set some basic ground rules
4. Pack your patience
5. Don't talk down to your teen while you're teaching them how to drive
6. Be sure to give specific praise to your teen while they drive
7. Set a specific agenda for each time you take your teen out to practice
8. Keep your conversations focused on driving
9. Set a time limit that both you and your teen can agree on
10. Keep a driving log while you practice
11. Don't stop talking to your teen after they get their license

Help Your Teenage Driver Make Safe Choices

Neither a borrower nor a lender be. That's a quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Advice from a father, Polonius, to his teenage son. There are two reasons why this is good teenage driving advice.

First: Lending a car to another teen is potentially dangerous. There will be a teenage driver, which statistically means a poor driver; there will be other teenagers in the car; there will probably be elevated emotions as a result; there will probably be overconfidence about driving skill in general since teens usually lend and borrow cars after they've driven only a few months; and, by definition, the teen is not driving his or her "regular" car -- it's a borrowed car.

Second: An insurance policy typically insures the vehicle for bodily injury and property damage only if the registered owner is driving it, or if it's being driven with the permission of the registered owner. Teenagers seldom are the registered owners -- parents are. So when teens lend to teens, there might be no insurance. Zero. The parent has not given the friend permission to drive. This means that your own teenager, riding as a passenger in your car, may not have coverage, because a teenage friend is doing the driving. If your children appreciate this, they may choose not to lend the keys to their friends.

Passengers get hurt, too. At some point, your teenagers will be passengers in a car driven by another teenager. Passengers can get hurt, too, worse than drivers. So let's look at passenger safety. Here are some points to discuss with your young driver.

• Don't ride with someone again if you didn't like their driving the first time.
  
• Wear a seat belt, even if no one else wears theirs.
  
• Let the driver concentrate. Don't encourage speed, loud music, horseplay, etc.
  
• Avoid alcohol, even as a passenger. It increases rowdiness, noise, distractions.

These are difficult things for a teenager to do. They require going against the grain, doing what isn't fun, doing what isn't emotional. That takes a lot of leadership.

That means doing what you know, inside, is the right thing to do. The smart thing to do. The responsible thing to do. Your child might even be pleasantly surprised and find out that the other occupants of the car agree-- they wanted to settle down, too, but they were afraid to say so.

Thank you to PEMCO Insurance Company

The Psychology of Teen Driving

Driving excitement.
If you tell your teenage children they can't have teenage passengers, music, night driving, etc., you'll likely hear something like this: "What's the point of even having a license if I can't drive with my friends and listen to music? What's the point if I can't have fun?"

We've all been brainwashed by a lifetime of ads and movies to think that driving should be exhilarating, exciting, and fun-- an emotional experience. Well, it shouldn't be. If it is, you're doing it wrong. (When was the last time you felt exhilarated during your morning commute?) Emotion is what sells cars. But we're really not supposed to drive emotionally. this point gets lost on people, especially teenagers.

Driving should be no more emotional than a bus ride. Getting from point A to B is the objective. Driving is a means of transportation, not entertainment. Discuss this with your children, and at least get them thinking about it. Their emotional level while driving is a good measurement of their driving maturity.

Your kids can monitor this themselves. If they feel they're getting "pumped up" by being behind the wheel, that should be a warning flag to you and to them. Can you eliminate or reduce whatever is creating the emotion-- the music, the friend in the front seat, the type of car?

Overconfidence after 6-12 months of driving.
Among PEMCO policyholders, 16-year-olds have a higher accident rate than adults, but not that much higher. However, at age 17, 18, and 19, we see the rate jump to three times the adult rate. One reason is that teenagers get overconfident. They've driven from home to school to home repeatedly, and they begin to think they've mastered driving.

They haven't. They've only mastered their "regular" trips, where they know every curve, intersection and lane change. That doesn't mean they're good at judging new situations for the first time, especially if it's under difficult conditions (other teens in the car, dark outside, bad weather, etc.). They're still "intermediate" drivers playing in an "advanced" tournament, and they have a long way to go before they can perform at that level.

Overconfidence when driving a different car.
Any car that isn't your child's regular car is potentially a hazard. Your friend's car. Another car in the family. A Sport Utility Vehicle or another vehicle that is bigger, heavier, and takes longer to turn or stop. Sensitize your teenagers to this. They will need to focus harder. The car will handle differently. The dashboard will be different. The light switch and wiper controls might be unfamiliar. There will be a number of distractions they aren't used to.