DANGEROUS DRIVING DISTRACTIONS AND WHAT YOU CAN DO TO PROTECT YOUR TEEN DRIVER
As most of you may already know, motor vehicle crashes kill more teenagers than any other trauma or disease. As we think back when we were teen drivers, many of us wonder how we survived. Distractions were present back then, as was substances that impaired one’s driving, as they are today. The only real new distractions today are CELL PHONES.
ARE YOU AWARE THAT AT&T AND VERIZON have applications that can impede any texting or cell phone use while your teenager’s car is moving. Verizon has an application that cost about $20 a month for fleet vehicle monitoring, which you can buy. You pay about $150 and plug in an electronic module that connects with your car’s computer system and this connects to your Verizon account and you can actually monitor your teen driver’s hours of driving, speeds, and location. You can even set parameters to notify you by text message if your teen driver’s vehicle exceeds a certain speed, is operated past your set curfew hours, or leaves geographic boundaries that you can set! Check these applications out…they could help save a life!!
Teen Drivers Distracted Big Time by Cellphones
A study, by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, analyzed about 1,700 videos taken from inside crash vehicles. The videos are used as part of a private program designed to coach drivers to improve performance. According to the group’s analysis, all forms of distraction were a factor in 58% of the studied crashes, including in 89% of the crashes where the vehicle left the road and in 76% of the accidents involving rear-end collisions. The top distraction, found in about 15% of the crashes, involved the driver interacting with at least one passenger in the vehicle. Next, at 12%, was the driver using a cellphone to talk, text or review the screen for messages and such.
MICHAEL MUSKAL, LA Times 03/26/2015
Read Article: LA Times
