Encouraging Safe Teen Driving with the Personal Mechanic

Driving is a dangerous activity. In fact, for teenagers it is the most dangerous activity in which they will participate. It is a shocking fact that motor vehicles are the leading cause of death for teenagers. Not only are motor vehicle crashes responsible for teen driving fatalities, they are also responsible for many serious injuries. Sixteen-year-old drivers are more likely to crash than drivers are at any other age and they are three times more likely to die in a motor vehicle crash than drivers of any other age. 2005 was a good year for teen driving in the United States as fatalities involving teen drivers dropped 6.5% from 7,979 in 1995 to record the lowest level in ten years. Over seven thousand teen driving fatalities are too many. Another way to view that statistic is by personalizing it. Over seven thousand parents have lost children unnecessarily and more than seven thousand lives were not fully lived.

The unfortunate reality is that safe teen driving seldom occurs. Even teen drivers that obey traffic rules are at risk. Driving is a dangerous activity as drivers are required to react to situations as they occur. Think about commuting to work. When was the last time that you had a near miss? Did you fail to look far enough across before you changed lanes? Did the car in front of you suddenly decide to slam on their brakes to make an illegal U-turn? Did you ever see someone that sailed through a red light as if they were completely unaware? As an experienced driver, you have been exposed to dangers on numerous occasions. Each near miss is a training experience. The more experience you have in such situations, the better prepared you will be for the time that they next occur. Safe driving skills take years to develop. While safer "teen driving techniques" can be taught in driving skills, it will take years of practice for those techniques to become safe driving instincts.

Teens are Unaware of the Risks

The fact is that many teen drivers are not aware of the dangers that are involved with driving or they are of the impression that the dangers do not apply to them. Dangerous teen driving practices include use of cellular phones while operating a motor vehicle, speeding, speeding to keep up with traffic, speeding to pass through a yellow light, driving with potentially distracting passengers and astonishingly, drunk driving. Teen drivers are aware of the risks but the trouble is they are at an age where they believe that bad things happen to other people. More than seven thousand other people found that hypothesis incorrect in 2005. It is worth sitting down with your teenager and telling them frankly about the dangers associated with teen driving. It is also worth telling your teenage driver about some of the foolish things that you did when you were a teen driver yourself.

Growing up, sadly, most people will lose a friend to a teen driving motor vehicle accident. For some teenagers, this drives the point home but there are better ways to learn the safe driving lesson. Personal Mechanic is a device that can be installed in the OBDII port under your steering wheel. It requires no mechanical knowledge to install, you simply plug it in and it will begin to record information from the computer of your car. To retrieve the data, you simply unplug the device from the car and plug it into a vacant USB port of a computer that runs Microsoft Windows. You then log into the Personal Mechanic website and the website will download the data from the device. The Personal Mechanic will give you an accurate report as to how your vehicle is being driven. You do not need to take your child's word in relation to their driving habits as the data will speak for itself.

How Personal Mechanic Can Improve Teen Driving Safety

Find Out How Your Teen is Really Driving

Armed with the data from your Personal Mechanic, you will be able to have a different conversation with your child about their teen driving habits. You will be able to identify how they really drive when they think that no one is watching. If they sped or over-revved the engine, you will know about it and be able to discuss it with them. The fact is that the initial driving years are a learning experience and can be quite positive for their development given appropriate direction and supervision. Discussing teen driving does not need to devolve into a shouting match. While the first time might be confrontational, the next time is likely to go much more smoothly. As your child starts developing better driving practices, tell them about it.

Reduce Teen Damage to Vehicles

Another benefit granted by the Personal Mechanic is to monitor the stresses that teen driving is placing on your car. Teen drivers tend to drive their cars less conservatively than their parents do. If a car has a manual transmission, chances are that the car will be driving at higher and in some cases, lower than the optimum rev rate. These are not necessarily signs of irresponsible driving but they are certainly worth discussing with your son or daughter. They are not necessarily safety related but they will go a long way to preserving the life of your engine.

Some might consider using a device like the Personal Mechanic to be an invasion of privacy. Others will tell you that they can trust their children to drive safely. They may well be able to trust their children and their children may in fact be driving quite safely but it is just as likely that they are not. Installing a device like the Personal Mechanic to monitor teen driving is not about matters as abstract as trust and privacy. It is about something as concrete as life and death. Trust is not a commodity that one can afford over a matter of such great importance. The statistics of teen driving are alarmingly bleak. If you want to be sure that your teenage driver can be trusted behind the wheel of your motor vehicle, purchase a Personal Mechanic from CarCheckup today.

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