How to Help Prevent Your Teen from causing a Tampa car accident

Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for US teens, resulting in more than 5000 deaths each year. While getting your teen their driver’s license is an important right of passage into adulthood and often a time for celebration, it is important that you and your teen realize the significant responsibility that comes with a drivers’ license.

To reduce the risk of your teen getting into a Tampa auto accident, consider discussing with your teen the tips offered in this article. The first tip is for you. It is important to lead your teen by example. It is important that you act behind the wheel of your own vehicle as you would like your teenager to act. Good driving skills that help prevent Tampa auto accidents include not driving excessively, not tailgating and not speeding. Relax and stay calm behind the wheel. This can help your teenager learn successful driving habits.

If you wear your seatbelt, it's much more likely that your teenager will do so as well. When you insist that your teenage driver wear their seatbelts, it may help remind them that seatbelts have been proven to be among the very best way to prevent injuries in a car accident Tampa. It is also important that your teenager wear their seatbelt every time they are in a car or behind the wheel. Not just to prevent injuries, but because the law in Florida regarding the wearing of seatbelts is increasingly being enforced and failure to wear your seatbelt can result in significant fines.

Another problem that’s a particular issue with today’s teenagers is driving while distracted. Now we all know that making phone calls and texting have become part of our daily lives, especially teenagers. We know that there is an increased risk of an auto accident with serious injuries when we make phone calls or text while driving texting. This is because doing these activities while driving distracts you you’re your driving and paying attention to what’s going on in front of you. Teenagers are well known for using the latest technology in order to communicate. While that technology used to include just cell phone calls and texting, it now includes constant use of Facebook and twitter which require and even greater level of interaction with their communication devices. To make matters worse, the studies on this issue are clear that teenagers are more easily distracted than experienced car drivers. This makes sense since teenagers generally have not yet fully developed their ability to focus, particularly over longer stretches. So it certainly makes sense given a teenagers tendency to become distracted to limit those distractions by turning off or at least significantly limiting the use of cell phones while they are driving.

Also, it's important to note that nighttime can be a particularly bad time for teens to be driving. Being less experienced with driving in general, driving at night adds significantly to the risks of getting into a Tampa auto accident because a teenager would generally be less familiar with the local road conditions. Restricting use of the car to daytime and early evening hours may help to resolve this issue, particularly when a teenager first gets their license and begins to drive on their own.

Of course, drinking and driving never mix for teens or adults. And certainly if the teen's parents don't drink and drive it is more likely that their teenager will follow their good example. But regardless, it should be stressed to the teen that driving while drinking is a very serious matter that can not only result in death and prison sentences if they end up causing a Tampa auto accident with significant injuries, but also will result in the immediate loss of their driving privileges. In this way, your teen will have the best opportunity to understand the significant repercussions of drinking and driving.

If you choose to adopt the suggestions discussed in this article as rules in your household to help your teen avoid a Tampa car accident that results in injuries to themselves or others, it is important that your teen knows that these rules will be enforced. It is also important that your teen knows that failure to abide by the rules will result in some type of punishment. In government and university studies and surveys, it was determined that the teens who said that their parents set clear rules and monitored them in a supportive, non controlling way were half as likely to be involved in car crashes compared to teens who said that their parents did not set down any rules with regard to their driving.

Finally, it may be useful to know that teens with their own cars are more likely to get into accidents than teens who share a car with other family members. According to recent findings, 25% of teens who have their own vehicles have been involved in crashes compared with only 11% of those who share a car. Although the study does not pinpoint the reason for this, it may be because of a sense of responsibility to the family when sharing a car with another family member. Perhaps if a teen knows that another family member will be inconvenienced should they be involved in a Tampa auto accident, they are more likely to follow the rules of the road as well as their parents’ rules at home.

Most parents of teenage drivers are aware of the impact to their car insurance rates when a teenage driver is added to their policy. As Tampa auto accident lawyers will advise you there are several ways that you can help to minimize the rate increase caused by adding a teen driver. The insurance company is willing to reduce the cost of adding your teen to the insurance policy because these several ways can each work to reduce the risk of your teen getting into a Tampa auto accident with injuries and thus they reduce the risk that the insurance company will have to pay out monies. For example, some insurance companies offer discounts or will reimburse you if your child is on the honor roll. And almost all insurance companies offer discounts if your child takes and passes an approved safe driving course.

Should you or your teen have any questions regarding their driving, feel free to call and speak with one of our attorneys. Our Tampa car accident attorneys are glad to talk with you about how to make your teen’s driving fun without risking the safety of yourself or others.