Check out her web site on parenting and her blog articles at these locations:

http://www.AdventuresInParenting.org

http://www.katylee.com/blog

http://www.squidoo.com/joyfulfamily

and a podcast we did together here:

http://www.adventuresinparenting.org/2008/09/24/safe_teen_driving/

Want to know what real teens think of most parenting advice? At Vanessa Van Petten’s web site, www.OnTeensToday.com, teen writers tell parents what they wish their own parents knew (and didn’t know).

Vanessa has enlisted eight teenage writers, age 13-17, to talk honestly about real issues that teens and pre-teens are dealing with, so parents can actually understand at least a small part of the teen world view — and finally develop better relations.

According to Vanessa, “As much as I LOVED my freedom when I was a teen, I know that adolescents are often two steps ahead of parental controls and because of this, watched many of my friends make really, really bad decisions. So, we have decided to break open the door to our SECRET, terribly complex world and let you in. Ok, I am exaggerating just a tad, but I do truly believe that if we help each other stay informed, we can stay safe, supported and become happier adults.

Vanessa Van Petten has been featured as the Young Parenting Expert in the Wall Street Journal, the Santa Monica Daily Press, World Journal, Atlanta Insite Magazine and more. She has also appeared on the Greg Mantell Show, Playboy Radio and numerous other radio and internet podcast shows. She has a nationally syndicated parenting column out of Epoch Times, New York City.

Vanessa has recently named the Safe Teen Driving Club blog as one of the “Best 50 Dad Blogs.”  Be sure to check out the wealth of information at her site, OnTeensToday.com for a real view into how teens think and why they act the way they do!

Sue Scheff is the founder of Parents Universal Resource Experts (P.U.R.E.). Her organization was founded in 2001 and for the past several years has assisted families with valuable information and resources for their children and teens who are at risk — teens struggling with peer pressure, experimenting with drugs and alcohol, and simply good kids starting to make bad choices. Doctors, Attorney’s, Therapists, Police Departments, Schools, Guidance Counselors and other professionals refer Parent’s Universal Resource’s to families.

Over the years Sue and her team have helped over 15,000 families dealing with troubled teens and difficult teen issues. Visit her site at www.helpyourteens.com and be sure to learn more at www.suescheff.com and her blog at http://parentsuniversalresourceexperts.wordpress.com where she’s recently posted an article about Safe Teen Driving Club.

Susan Kessler worked for almost three years to build a partnership with the Georgia Department of Driver Services, which is responsible for licensing teenage drivers. Her  “CAUTION: Newly Licensed” magnetic bumper sticker is now available from libraries, police departments and every DDS licensing station throughout the state.

The CAUTION-NEWLY LICENSED® Car Magnet was developed to reduce teen car crashes and fatalities. The magnet identifies teens with Learners Permits and First Year Licenses. Placed on the rear of the vehicle, the magnet alerts other drivers to use extreme caution, courtesy, and patience. A proven method to reduce teen car crashes is more experience behind the wheel.

The CAUTION-NEWLY LICENSED® car magnet provides a “shield of protection” from other drivers and allows the teen to concentrate on the road. The magnet protects not only the inexperienced drivers, but also surrounding drivers. Buses, semi-trucks and drivers education vehicles clearly mark new drivers. The same concept works for teen drivers. Identifying teen drivers is already the law in many other countries including those in Europe, Asia, Canada, and Australia.

The CAUTION-NEWLY LICENSED® Car Magnet Program launched a pilot program in Cobb County, Georgia in April 2007 with a distribution of more than 3,000 magnets with tremendous success. In October 2007, the CAUTION-NEWLY LICENSED® car magnets became available nationwide. We believe that by working together as a society, we will save teen lives. Please help us by identifying all new teen drivers.

Check into our online Safety Store to learn more and pick one up for your teen today. For $10 you can’t go wrong!

Lemur Autovision is a brand new product from Newfoundland, Canada. It’s a key fob that keeps track of the speed your teen drives, how many times they slammed on the brakes and how many miles they drove. All without the hassle of being in the car with them.

Your son or daughter says, “Mom, I need to go to the library for a study group.” You and your teen both know that Autovision will keep track of the mileage and how fast he or she drove. Just check the key fob when your child returns home. It’s a truly innovative, simple and inexpensive way to let your teen show his or her responsibility behind the wheel. No computer needed!

Parents: You can set a secret PIN number into the device to reset the unit after each trip. If anyone else tries to reset Autovision, a “TAMPER” sign will appear on the LCD screen.

One parent says: Neat! If my kid brings home a report card, I look at it and ask them why they got a C in Math, or applaud them for any A’s.

I am not spying on them or showing a lack of trust. I want to know how well they are doing at school. I care!

Same with my car. Show me they are a good driver, whether I am with them or not, and maybe they get to use the car more often. After all, it’s my car and I pay the insurance.

Autovision comes with a tiny sensor that plugs into the OBD II port – that’s the little plug at the bottom of your dash the mechanic plugs into when diagnosing engine problems or checking your emission control system. Just plug it in and it will begin sending messages to the Autovision key fob. There’s nothing to install and no monthly fees.

Here’s a tools for parents and teens that doesn’t invade a teen’s privacy, but allows parents to coach or discipline children for speeding, taking unauthorized side trips or driving aggressively. We’re glad to be offering this great new teen safety device. Visit our store and pick one up today.

Introduction:

Every year teenagers line up at the DMV to take the most important test of their social lives.  The next few weeks are packed with anxiety until that one day when the mail is delivered and they receive their most prized possession;  their drivers license!  They now have the legal right to go further and faster than ever before!  So why are we not as thrilled as they are?  Why are we not as thrilled as we were when we received our drivers’ license?  Could it be the haunting statistics on accidents associated with teenage drivers that you have in the back of your mind?

            Fact: Teenagers are more likely to get into an accident than any other age group.  As happy as we are to see our teenager become social royalty among their high school friends for owning the legal right to drive a motor vehicle, we can’t help but think of how they will be pressured to abuse the privilege that was just bestowed upon them.   When we factor in the terrifying statistics they are subjected to, our minds harp on the serious consequences associated with an accident at their age.  Inevitably, right as they are flying out the door to embark on their first voyage with no adult supervision, we add just a little bit of rain to their parade by uttering the words, “Be responsible!, Don’t Speed!, and Don’t get into any trouble!”  Then we sit back and wait nervously for them to come home, hoping that they got the message.

I get it.  No parent wants to be the bad guy and take away the feeling of freedom that their teenager has just recently discovered.  However, we find that our nations’ youth are in desperate need of better parenting, now, more than ever before.   We hope our teenager is as smart and responsible as we think they are and that they will be invincible to the statistics.  We might feel confident that the suggestion to drive slow, respect the traffic laws and always wear your seat belt are enough to send the point home.  However, it is not enough to simply remind them to be responsible.   As parents, we need to understand just how much our teenager is at risk behind the wheel so we can effectively communicate that these suggestions are laws and that they are there for a reason.  We need to understand that they will be up against incredible odds out on the road with very little to no experience.  We need to put ourselves in their shoes and give them advice so that they are adequately equipped to drive and react responsibly. Thus, they will be able to more readily avoid dangerous situations and beat those awful odds.

Teenagers and Driving

Teenagers are much more likely to die in a car crash than adults.  This is due to the nature of the car crash.  A car crash involving a teenage driver tends to be more severe because they tend to travel with multiple friends in the car and are easily distracted by conversations and technology devices (such as a radio or cell phone).  As the noise level increases, travel speeds tend to increase and traffic signs are easily missed or ignored.  As a result, an accident that involves a car with a teenage driver usually involves a head on collision (or other high impact, severely damaging crash) at relatively higher speeds thus increasing the likelihood of a fatality.  In addition, teenagers tend not to wear their seatbelt which easily facilitates them being thrown around the cabin of a car or ejected out of it during or after impact.  In this case death is much more likely to result because the number of blows sustained to the body increase and the nature of them are more severe.

Drinking and Driving

Drinking and driving tremendously increases your risk of getting into an accident.  If you pair that up with being a teenager and you have a recipe for disaster.  The odds of getting into a life changing or life ending accident skyrocket if you are both inexperienced and have been drinking.  Drinking impairs your judgment and your reaction time.  Inebriated individuals are more likely to feel like they are above the law and invincible.  They tend to engage in violent behavior more readily and make decisions to disobey the law more frequently.  What that means as a driver is that they are much more likely to speed, swerve obliviously, fail to notice an object or person in the road, ignore or miss stop signs and lights, drive with tunnel vision and tailgate (as their focus is limited to the taillights they are following), slam on their brakes due to slow reaction time, and commit other traffic infractions.  Teenagers also tend to drink to get drunk, often consuming many more alcoholic beverages than an adult would at a social gathering or in a casual setting.  Lastly, when they do drink, they tend to hide it because it’s illegal and they do not want to get in trouble.  So, when they are drunk and have to go home, they would rather attempt to drive themselves so everything seems normal, instead of getting a ride from an adult or a sober designated driver.

For a teenager, in most cases, the tolerance for alcohol is much less than that of a matured adult.   Drinking will usually hit them harder and severely influence their ability to perform basic motor skills (such as walking and talking), let alone operate a motor vehicle in an alert, responsible manner.  Choosing to operate a motor vehicle after drinking will often result in a DUI or DWI charge.  Individual states used to define a person’s ability to drive based on different BAC levels; where a New York DUI may have constituted a different BAC level than a New York DWI.  However, currently, all 50 states have made it illegal to operate a motor vehicle with a BAC of 0.08%.  A criminal DUI or DWI charge can affect you for the rest of your life. 

 Consequences of a Crash

            The result of a crash can change a person’s life forever.  The injuries resulting from a car crash can last a lifetime and may inhibit their ability to accomplish everything they had their heart set on doing.  For teenagers, the risk of dying from a crash is extremely high.  However, even if they are fortunate to live through it, they might not come out with just a few bumps and bruises.  A car crash involving teenagers are more likely to result in broken bones, disfigurement, brain damage or paralysis ultimately affecting their ability to participate in the activities that they would normally take part in and perform their routine daily activities.  Assisted living arrangements may have to be made to accommodate their new lifestyle.  After all that is said and done, the medical bills alone are enough to cause alarm.   However, crashes among teenagers also cost the economy billions of dollars each year.  When there is an accident, paramedics are pulled  from their job to respond, fire trucks come, police officers arrive, tow trucks might be needed, and street cleaning might be required.  Traffic may be backed up, people going to and from work might not make it there and jobs do not get done.

If the law is broken during an accident, court personnel will most likely be needed.  DUI lawyer will be necessary costing even more money.  Potential jail space is also needed if the driver is sentenced.  Every aspect of the accident costs time and money.  When a victim suffers from an accident, they suffer, our economy suffers, and thus, we all suffer.

What Can Parents Do?

As parents, we can do a lot to help avoid all of this by giving our teenagers the proper education they need to drive responsibly and stay alert so they can recognize dangerous situations.  First and foremost, educate your teenager on the statistics surrounding accidents and teenage drivers.  Tell them to stay off of their cell phones and do not play with the radio while they are driving.  Giving your teenager the power to make the rules of the car when they are driving with their friends will give them the confidence to tell their friends to keep the noise level to conversational.  Tell them it’s okay to request that their passengers are obedient in the car and that it is okay to refuse to drive anyone that is making the situation dangerous.  Explain to them what the laws are and why they are in place.  Try to give them as much insight into the future after an accident as possible so it is clear to them what risks they are up against.  Reiterating the importance of driving responsibly from time to time will keep the thought of driving defensively fresh in their mind so that they continue to be an asset to the road, not a threat.  Remind your teenager that just because they are driving safe doesn’t mean that everyone else is always driving safe and that, in order to drive responsibly, they have to consider how other drivers might react to a situation near them and factor that into their driving strategy.

Make sure they know the affect alcohol has on their ability to operate a vehicle.  Do not feel bad about lecturing your teenager about the consequences of drinking and driving.   You and your teenager would both feel worse if they got into an accident and had their lives ruined over something easily preventable.  Communicate that drinking alcohol underage is illegal and unacceptable but that driving a car after drinking is a much worse offense and that it is better for them to call you to pick them up in the event that they have been drinking rather than try to hide it and drive themselves.

The make and model of your teenager’s car can also affect the way they drive.  Giving them an SUV to drive may give them a false sense of security and result in them driving more aggressively.  However, giving them a sports car may have the same affect. SUV’s may be bigger and may not crush as easily, but they flip more easily and when they are involved in an accident, they do more damage to other cars around them.  Smaller cars handle better but don’t offer as much protection.  At the same time, they don’t pack as much momentum as their SUV counterparts.  Therefore, they may slow, swerve and stop easier hopefully causing less damage during a last minute attempt to avoid an accident.  Ideally, no matter what car they are driving, they need to be reminded that ultimately, the car does not make you or anyone else on the road safe; the way you drive does. 

Parents should also know their teenager’s friends.  Take time to figure out who your kids are spending time with.  Try to make sure that your teenagers’ friends are aware of the risks involved so that they too can take preventative measure by being good passengers and good drivers.  You cannot always assume that another teenager has had the same education on driver safety and it might be beneficial to pass the word along to them regardless of whether or not it seems overprotective or embarrassing of your teenager.  There is nothing embarrassing about wanting to protect our nation’s youth and frankly, it is our job to do what we can to protect ourselves and each other from harm.

More Information:

            Driving can be a wonderful and exciting privilege to take advantage of.  We all must do more to keep our drivers safe.  Through education, experience and communication we can make the roads a much safer place for everyone.  Our young drivers are in particular need of support and supervision.  For a database of knowledge covering health issues, legal information, current news, event updates, details on support programs, related research and many other helpful resources please visit DUIFoundation.org.

The driving age is once again an issue in the news. In other countries — including Germany, France and most of the EU, Brazil, China, Japan, Russia, South Africa and the Australian state of Victoria, – teens can’t be licensed until the age of 18. Our neighbors to the North in Canada still hold with most US states at 16 years old. New Jersey stands alone in the US with minimum licensing at 17, while South Dakota is at 14-1/2.

According to the IIHS.org status report of September 9th, “A basic question is whether the risk associated with beginning drivers stems from their youth and immaturity or [their] inexperience. If it’s mainly immaturity, then it would pay to put off licensure until teenagers get a little bit older. But if the problem is mostly inexperience, then delaying licensure would simply put off the toll of beginner’s crashes [to an older age group].”

Many studies have been done dating back to the 90′s that try to separate these two factors. One Canadian study concludes that 16 year old teens, especially girls, had higher rates of injury crashes than older teens who had the same amount of behind the wheel experience. Another 11 studies also focused on driver age and inexperience. Based on these studies, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety concludes that “new drivers who are 16 years old have higher crash rates than older teenagers who are also new drivers.”

So it seems that research supports raising the driving age to reduce the crash rate. During 2008 several states introduced legislation to raise the driving age, yet none have passed. Legislators face resistance from parents who, according to Dr. Anne McCartt, “…may know that putting off licensure is good from a safety standpoint, but at the same time they’re impatient to get out of the business of chauffeuring their kids from one activity to another. They often believe their own children will be safe drivers, and they may be disinclined to disappoint their kids, many of whom want to get their licenses as soon as possible. For these and whatever other reasons, parents haven’t made a big push to change the licensing laws,” McCartt says.

We couldn’t agree more that parents should NEVER install a GPS tracker without the teen’s knowledge. But on the general issue of privacy and trust between parent and teen, both issues that come up from time to time, the writer asked us for our opinion. Here’s what we replied by email; perhaps this will resonate with some readers.

________

Dear [name withheld for privacy],

Thanks for asking our thoughts on the use of GPS trackers and bumper stickers that identify teen drivers.

Yes, the trust and privacy issue does crop up sometimes. We have an article from Dr. Robin Kirby on our web site that addresses the issue of trust and spying on kids that might be of interest. Robin is a Clinical Psychologist who does a lot of work with families and teens.  She sees many families in which the parents are “abdicating” their true parenting responsibilities and has said this is almost at epidemic proportions these days.

For example, parents often believe that THEIR teen is somehow different than other teens, and therefore do not handle their parenting responsibilities with the insight or attention needed.  Allstate did a study that verifies this further, calling it the “not MY teen syndrome.” Their study also points out how uninformed parents are on issues surrounding teen driving.

Because driving crashes are the #1 killer and injury cause for teens, it only makes sense for parents to be parents – not just friends to their kids, or too busy with social life, work and other activities to get truly engaged on driving safety.  Here are a few articles that speak to this. The Allstate study in particular bears close reading.

Dr. Kirby’s article:

http://www.safeteendrivingclub.org/reading_article.php?ID=5

Allstate study:

http://www.safeteendrivingclub.org/reading_article.php?ID=15

Parenting Style Can Contribute to Teen Car Crashes:

http://www.safeteendrivingclub.org/media.php

Why Teenagers Act Weird:

http://www.safeteendrivingclub.org/reading_article.php?ID=48

None of this is to indict parents. We all live busy lives. But here at Safe Teen Driving Club we do try to elevate the issue of proper parenting as it relates to driving, which, after all, is about keeping one’s precious child safe, intact and alive. Bumper stickers and GPS vehicle trackers are just tools that concerned parents can use to help in the process. We believe that every parent should use GPS for at least the first year of driving with the Intermediate license, because that’s where the crash rate skyrockets, especially in the early months. National Safety Council reports 58% of teens crash in the first year; 80% in three years.  With these facts in hand, we think it makes sense for parents to be parents and take responsibility for their kids rather than just turning them loose with a car and hoping for the best because “it won’t happen to my teen.”  Of course a parent-teen contract plays a huge role in this, and it’s also something we highly recommend.

And of course, we don’t indict teens either. They’re growing, learning and developing. There’s a lot on brain development that shows kids are not often able to make mature decisions, to anticipate outcomes of their actions. When it comes to a parent saying, “Yes, I trust my child,” that trust doesn’t speak to what teens actually DO, often on the spur of the moment.  There’s another study that bears review too from NHTSA: http://www.safeteendrivingclub.org/reading_article.php?ID=6.  It’s amazing what those focus groups discovered kids actually do in a car when parents are not with them. So trust alone doesn’t answer the question, “What might my child do when I’m not watching over him?”

There are just too many kids dying and coming out of ER’s with life-changing injuries to allow us to feel that privacy or trust issues take precedence over sound parenting and keeping kids alive.

Finally, I completely agree that parents should NEVER install GPS without telling their child. Doing that does appear to be a clear indication of trust lacking in the relationship. Instead, parents should talk with their child, explain why they’re installing GPS, and then discuss GPS reports on a regular basis as part of an on-going parenting/coaching program aimed at improving their child’s’ driving behavior and safety.

In the meantime, I applaud your work and wish you the best as you continue working with teens and their parents. I’m sure you’ll have a real impact on families. My best wishes!

1. If you’re buying a car for your teen, choose an inexpensive safe car that carries lower premiums. Visit www.safercar.gov to get safety ratings on over 2,500 vehicles. If you put your teen in a high powered, expensive car, you’ll pay higher premiums and expose your teen to temptation and greater risk should he decide to “test out” his skills at high speed.

2. Shop around for insurance. If you’re putting your teen on your policy, chances are you won’t want to change your carrier. But you can use the Internet to find the rates and protection that you are looking for, often at better rates than your own carrier offers.

3. Limit your teen’s driving. Keep the mileage down to a minimum to keep the premium rate low. Lower mileage can mean a lower premium.

4. Raise Deductibles. Deductibles are the amount you pay out of pocket when you or your teen are involved in a crash. The higher your deductible amount, the lower your premium.

5. Encourage your teen to get good grades. Most carriers offer a good student discount. Many parents make getting good grades a condition of driving. No matter how you handle the issue, be sure to apply for the good student discount, and any others that may apply.

6. Use an active GPS monitor. Many insurance companies provide discounts for motorists who equip their vehicle with an active GPS tracking unit. These discounts are mandatory in some states, as the GPS unit qualifies as an anti-theft device.

7. Avoid insuring a hybrid vehicle for your teen. The IIHS reports this month that hybrids cost insurance companies more than otherwise identical vehicles running on gas. Of a dozen vehicles that are available in both conventional gas and hybrid models, ten of the 12 hybrids had higher “crash severity” than their gas-powered counterparts. When insurers pay higher claims, you pay higher premiums.

8. Complete an advanced defensive driving course. Many carriers offer discounts for teens who complete defensive driving programs. Our most popular program, which can be done at home in about 8-10 hours, is the teenSMART^® program, which can save hundreds or perhaps up to $1,000 on premiums over the time your teen drives. See the web site for more detail.

Our Mission

To help you (Mom and Dad!) safeguard and protect your teen,
leading to reduced driving crashes, injuries and fatalities.

What We Do

We provide education and information for parents to help them protect and safeguard their children as they begin driving. To help parents with concrete and actionable steps they can take, we also deliver services and tools — proven to reduce the likelihood of a crash — to help parents keep their teens safe and alive.

Why We Do It

There is no other threat that consistently takes over 5,000 young lives each year. If there were, our nation would long ago have been galvanized into action to do whatever was necessary to stop the carnage. Yet teen driving has been a national health and safety issue — and a tragedy for thousands of families — every year since the late 1950′s when teens began driving in large numbers. We believe there is no more important step we can take for our young people than focusing on ways to keep them alive behind the wheel.

About Safe Teen Driving Club

Vehicle crashes are the #1 cause of death and injury for youngsters age 15 to 20. Guns, drugs, suicide, homicide and all other causes take a back seat to driving crashes. Nearly half of teen deaths result from vehicle crashes. For those who survive crashes, some 300,000 teens must be treated in hospital ER’s each year, many with life-changing injuries.

The Safe Teen Driving Club is a community of concerned parents, teens and professionals, and a resource for protecting teenage drivers and their families. We are working with parents, schools, educators, businesses, non-profits and public policy makers to create a safer driving environment for teens, while giving parents the tools and services they need to significantly affect and improve their teen’s driving behavior. We want to help you keep them safe!