A look at the negative effects age and alcohol have on a driver, and what parents need to know about prevention. This article is kindly provided by our friends at the DUI Foundation. Read on to learn from the experts…
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.