Study Finds Teens Are Worse Drivers in First 18 Months

Many parents have teen drivers. As you know, it can be expensive to insure these drivers. This is mainly due to the fact that teens often are inexperienced and careless drivers. We live in a time where many teens get distracted by their cell phones and the passengers that they have in their vehicle.
Teens are rebellious and often do not heed the advice of their parents. One young girl was told not to take her car over a ramp at a mall but she did anyway and ended up hitting another teen driver who also wanted to go over the ramp. The grand total for the damage to both vehicles was $3,000. Because the teen driver had accident forgiveness coverage, her auto insurance premiums did not go up very much.
However, many teens will not have this same scenario. If your teen driver gets into an automobile accident then their car insurance premiums could soar.
The U.S National Institutes of Health recently completed a study which involved following 42 new drivers from their first day until they had their license for a year and a half. The study found that drivers who had six months of experience or less behind the wheel were 12 times more likely to be involved in an automobile accident.
This is not very shocking because as everyone knows most teens take their driver’s test and then forget most of what they have learned. They think that because an examiner gave them a driver’s license that they have nothing else to learn about driving. This is where parental supervision and instruction needs to occur.
Parents need to sit down with their kids and restrict their driving privileges until the driver is 18. This will allow the driver to have parameters that they must stay in while behind the wheel.
Driving is a privilege and most teens take it as a right on the day that they turn 16. It is important for parents to keep driving with their kids in all different types of weather situations and visibility. During the winter months, many teens end up getting into accidents because they have very little knowledge about how a car should be driven when roads are slippery. Parents can help their teen drivers by driving with them when the weather conditions and visibility are poor.
The study examined the differences of 42 teens and their parents when driving. The teens were involved in 37 accidents and the parents were only involved in two. The teens were involved in 242 near accidents while the parents had only 32 incidents when they were almost involved in an accident. This goes to show that experience is well worth the investment. Parents are by far better drivers than their teen drivers. Most teens do not like to listen to what their parents have to say but you should act like an adult if you are in charge of a two ton vehicle.
Teens should have their driving privileges be closely monitored for the first two years that they have them. Parents should make sure that there are no passengers in the car besides themselves and that the teen reports any tickets or accidents to them immediately.
It is important for teens to understand that their driving record is important. If you have a lot of blemishes on your record then your car insurance rates will sky rocket. Parents should consider enrolling their kids in additional driver’s ed programs after they have gotten a license so that they can continue to work on their skills and have consistent auto insurance rates for years to come.
Sources: Fox Business, Car Insurance.com