Parents Bad Role Models for Young Drivers

When it comes to learning how to drive, Lindsay Lohan might be just as good a role model for teens as are Mom and Dad.

In a survey of more than 2,200 teens and their parents, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. found that teens tend to model their driving habits on what they see Mom and Dad do behind the wheel. Apparently, parents aren't doing a very good job.

More than 80 percent of teens say they pay attention to what their folks do, and 85 percent of parents say they promote safety by driving safely themselves, with 50 percent of parents insisting they always drive at or below the speed limit. The teens response: Phooey — Mom and Dad speed 80 percent of the time.

More than half the teens surveyed said that rather than focusing on driving, parents argue, yell at other drivers, read the paper, chat on cell phones, send text messages, read email, fail to wear their seat belts and, worst of all, drink while driving.

"The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has found that parents with traffic violations or who've been in crashes are more likely to have teen drivers with violations or crashes," said Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research at IIHS. "When it comes to learning good driving habits, parents matter."

Time for parents to practice what they preach. Considering the fact that more than one-third of all teen deaths are the result of traffic accidents, the survey is more than a bit alarming. Ironically, Illinois just passed legislation this week to increase the number of hours parents must devote to teaching their kids to drive.

Comments

The best solution: Change graduated licensing laws to mandate 50 hours of supervised driving instruction with a DRIVING SCHOOL. A lot of graduated licensing laws require 6 months of supervised driving, but that could mean any number of practice hours with any quality of driver. Some kids may finish the 50 hours in 6 months, some may take longer, and some may get done sooner. What counts is the number and quality of practice driving hours.

I'm sorry but I just have to make a comment about these remarks that involve stuff like "Raise the driving age" or "Make mandatory driving school longer." Yes in an ideal world that would be a very good system but the issue is unless a teen lives in a major city with dense public transportation or has parents who have nothing to do all day but ship their kids around, it would be a meltdown for some families in terms of getting around. And nor do they all have deep pockets. Driving school isn't free. And shelling out the money for basic drivers ed is already a challenge for some.

Here in California, I had to have my permit for 6 months and had to have 6 hours of professional driving school. Then I got my license! All for $350!!

I have to give thanks to Mom, she was an excellent driver. And Dad was fast (but he never got pulled over, that I ever saw)

As far as driver's Ed, I'd STILL recommend getting an old car and spend the summer as a family Auto-Xing.

1.) it's family time
2.) you learn reflexes that are invaluable in public
3.) it's relatively cheap

perhaps if we had tougher driver's license requirements like places such as Germany, things would be better ...