Teenage drivers are the most at risk of getting in car accidents. They are also the least likely to listen to your advice about how to prevent car accidents involving teenagers.
Here are 7 practical ways to motivate your teen drivers to avoid bad car crashes.
1. Show Statistics On Teenage Car Accidents
The statistics for car accidents involving teenagers really open your eyes on how dangerous and risky teen driving really is.
The numbers don’t lie.
Teenage car accidents are the number one cause of teen deaths. Your 16-19 year old teenage drivers are more likely to get in a fatal accident than any other driving age.
Combine your safe driving advice with facts about teen car accidents to make more of an impact.
You can then discuss ways to prevent bad car accidents.
Show your kids the facts about teen driving and then they will see that you aren’t trying to spoil their fun but increase their safety.
2. Explain Costs and Penalties of Teenage Car Accidents
I bet your teenage drivers don’t know how expensive it is to pay car insurance for teenagers. They probably don’t even know which auto insurance they have.
All they know is that they need one to drive. They don’t worry about how auto crashes will raise their monthly insurance premiums.
Why would they worry? They aren’t the ones paying for it. You are.
Tell them how much you pay every month for their auto insurance. Explain to them how much your payments will increase if they got in a auto crash.
Let them also know how much it would cost to get their beloved automobile repaired and how many points will be added to their driver’s license.
Having more points on your driving license means your license may get suspended and no teen wants that.
You will certainly get your teen drivers attention when you talk about money and how they can lose their right to drive.
3. Talk to other Teenage Drivers
The biggest influences on your teenagers are other teenagers. This is true for what your kids wear, which music they listen and also how they drive
The best way to change bad teen driving habits is to let them speak with other teenage drivers who have experienced car accident injuries and really bad auto crashes.
If you talk to your teenage driver about being a better driver all the time it will come off as another lecture and they will likely ignore it.
Talking to other teen drivers will reduce the chance of them neglecting the advice. They will pay more attention about how to avoid really bad car accidents.
4. Share Your Own Personal Bad Car Accident Experiences
If you or someone you know has been in a bad accident, tell your teenage drivers about it. Be specific and clear about what kind of car accidents they were (single vehicle, collision, drunk driving accident). Tell them who caused the accident and how you felt afterward.
Were you scared? Terrified? Was anyone severly injured?
Be really descriptive with the details. Paint a vivid picture in their minds on how terrible auto crashes can be.
This approach works because you motivate your teen driver to be safer without ever actually telling them.
You’re not telling them what to do (which every teenage driver hates), you’re simply sharing a bad accident experience you had. You’ve lowered their guard and now they are actually listening to your advice.
5. Show Graphic Illustrations of Teenage Car Accident Injuries
Don’t spare the gory details to your teen drivers with presentations and illustrations about bad car accidents. If you really want to protect your teen drivers then please be realistic about what could happen to them after a bad auto crash.
The best way to protect your teenagers drivers is to be truthful and upfront with the dangers.
A lot of teens like the TRUTH ads about the dangers of smoking. Why?
Because they are clever about how they present the dangers of smoking tobacco. The ads also never really tell them not to smoke. They simply present the information and statistics in such a way you to come to that conclusion.
Be more creative about how you talk to your teenage drivers about car accidents. Use a more graphic and informative method to get your message across.
6. Enforce Penalties
At times you have enforce some rules for your young drivers. If you decide to do this, do it gradually. Otherwise you will simply get rebellious and angry teen drivers on the road.
Some suggestions:
- Reduce their driving privileges
- Increase driving errands like food shopping or picking up siblings.
- Make them pay for speeding tickets, increased insurance rates and vehicle repair
Try an approach and see if it has any impact.
Pick something moderate at first (like reducing the time they can stay out) and see if that improves their driving. If not, drop it and pick something else. Talk to other parents with teenagers and see what they have tried that you can use.
7. Talk To Your Teenage Drivers Often
Simply by talking about teenage car accidents with your teen drivers will make a huge difference.
However, if you only talk to them after their car accidents about safety or increased insurance costs you will accomplish nothing. After all, if it was such a big deal why didn’t you talk about it with them before?
The best thing to do is just have a regular dialogue when things are fine. It doesn’t have to be a weekly scheduled meeting. As long as you emphasize that it is an important issue they will be more likely to listen and change their driving habits.
Bottom-line:
Understanding the causes of teen car accidents and the ways how you can prevent teenage driving deaths are good first steps.
However, until you know how to motivate your teenage drivers to change their bad driving habits, they are still at risk for a fatal car wreck.
Once your teenage drivers realize how bad teenage car accidents really are, they will be motivated to be more careful and improve their driving habits. This will save you from stressing the dangers of teen driving accidents so often.
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