Home > Health > On Parenting > Parents Keep Teen Drivers Safe When They Control the Car Keys

Parents Keep Teen Drivers Safe When They Control the Car Keys

Reader Comments
Back to blog

I'm a teen myself, and there are a couple of points I think this article misses, the first and foremost of which is this: what about teens who buy their own car? I had to work full-time over the summer and save up countless hours of babysitting money to buy my own car, and perhaps because of that, I've never been in an accident. I think it's the act of giving a teen a car without them having to earn it in any way that contributes most highly to a teen's elevated risk of crashing; when teens earn their cars themselves, they have a greater sense of responsibility towards the vehicle and thus drive more safely. However, I do agree that parents should monitor their teen's driving and take away the keys if evidence of dangerous driving behavior comes to light; ensuring the teen's safety definitely takes precidence over their independence in that case. I write for a blog called Radical Teen Parenting that gives advice to parents from a teen's perspective, and their article "Teen Driving 101" brings up a lot of good points related to the issue of teen driving that are worth checking out. Thanks!

Sabrina of WA 6:53PM January 17, 2012

The role of parents in keeping their teenagers safe on the road is not to be underestimated. We put a lot of time and resources into developing a guide for parents who are teaching their teens to drive. This guide is free to anyone as we feel education about driving is the key to keeping teenagers safe on the roads. You can download this guide or link to it at http://www.drivers.com/article/218/

LKeegan 3:46PM February 14, 2010

Oops...sorry the link didn't work! If you are interested go to http://allstateteendriver.com/

AlexisJ of IL 12:35PM January 13, 2010

I'd concur with the other parents on the blog in agreeing that teaching responsibility is the best lesson through a teen working, paying for insurance, or through driving a family car. Teens that are handed a brand new car of their own never accept the full value of a car nor the responsibilities it carries to his or herself and to other drivers on the road. My teen son is driving a family car, works part time, and he's paying for his own insurance. Some of his earnings go to his college fund but I still leave date/fun money for him.
I also think that the writer should hit on technology solutions for teen driving safety beyond the statistics. I was lucky and got in the beta program for www.carefulteendriver.com, which has helped reinforce my son's good driving habits. Just as a backup I also got a Lemur Autovision which I regularly check. You should have seen the shock on his face when I got a report that he ran a stop sign from carefulteendriver.com....it put a quick end to that habit!

Steve of TX 8:27PM December 10, 2009

As the parent of a teen who will be driving next year I'm not going to be afraid to set rules or boundaries for safe driving or afraid to take the keys away for that matter.
And I do agree that limiting passangers is safer for new teen drivers. What I don't understand is if studies have been done that has research to back this up why do high schools encourage car pooling? Even reward it by offering discounted parking passes?
I agree that teen safetly starts with the parents but it cannot end there.

For the Young Driver - http://foryoungdrivers.org of MN 8:09PM October 19, 2009

What defines adult??? I would say that in order to become an adult one must learn responsibility. You don't learn responsibility by reading it in a book, you have to live it. Same with any activities that can put oneself or others at risk. Unless they are subsidized by their parents, teens with a car will require a job. Thats a double win in terms of learning responsibility. Moving the driving age from 16 to 18 will not allieviate the problem of teen deaths, rather it will just delay it. Do you really want teens to leave home for college/career with no driving experience? I'd equate that to sending your child to college without having a few drinks with them first. I've seen too many teens/young adults make bad choices because they didn't have the life experiences they needed before they left "the nest". Go to any freshman dorm during the first month of school. Its easy to pick out the kids who are having their first beer because they're going nuts. So yeah, why not coincide that with their first driving experiences? Sounds like a great plan.
At the end of the day its not age thats the main factor but maturity, and it can be argued that a teens maturity level is a direct result of parenting. Do you want to regulate parenting?

NF of NY 1:01PM September 29, 2009

I have been involved in a community forum called, "Is Your Teen Road Ready?" It really helps the parents and the child to understand the multidimensional aspects of being really ready to drive. It is not just chronological age that is important, but rather, maturity, responsibility, parent oversight, cost factors, and even physical mental or emotional disabilities. Driving is an awesome responsibility, made even more important because of the damage that can be done to life and property. Driving is a great way to feel more grown up and take more responsiblilty but the parents have to have oversight. By setting limits and boundaries they show how much the love their children. Love them enough to keep them safe.
Dr. Stephen Trudeau
Author - The Special Needs of Parenting
http://www.eloquentbooks.com/TheSpecialNeedsOfParenting.html

Dr. Stephen Trudeau of CA 12:14PM September 29, 2009

I have been involved in a community forum called, "Is Your Teen Road Ready?" It really helps the parents and the child to understand the multidimensional aspects of being really ready to drive. It is not just chronological age that is important, but rather, maturity, responsibility, parent oversight, cost factors, and even physical mental or emotional disabilities. Driving is an awesome responsibility, made even more important because of the damage that can be done to life and property. Driving is a great way to feel more grown up and take more responsiblilty but the parents have to have oversight. By setting limits and boundaries they show how much the love their children. Love them enough to keep them safe.
Dr. Stephen Trudeau
Author - The Special Needs of Parenting
http://www.eloquentbooks.com/TheSpecialNeedsOfParenting.html

Dr. Stephen Trudeau of CA 12:14PM September 29, 2009

I totally agree. I was so glad to see this information come out. My daughter is in the process of getting permits/license, and I'm not at all comfortable wiith her driving to school which is 35 miles one way, not even with another classmate. Getting her "own" car will not happen until her first year of college, but the car will be left at home. I think most parents are happy to relinquish driving responsibility to their teenagers but this is not always a safe practice, as our roads today are not the same as it was 15 years ago.

Gomez of MD 7:52AM September 29, 2009

I honestly don't believe any adolescent needs to be driving at all. When those laws were written, there was far less traffic and mostly it was so teens could drive farm equipment around to help with the family or neighbor's farm. Today, traffic is so much heavier, and there are far too many distractions, like other teens in the vehicle. I was 19 when I started driving, and learned some valuable lessons while driving my younger brother's troop of scouts to camp, about 2 months after getting my license. One was to not try following a more experienced driver, but get my own directions from a map, and another was to make sure the passengers in our large station wagon didn't distract my focus on droving by setting rules of behavior in the vehicle. On the whole most adolescents may be more aware in some ways, but seem to me to be generally far less mature and responsible than I was at comparable ages. But even back in the 60's it really wasn't necessary or safe for teens to be driving before they were adults! For the sakes of the teens themselves and society as a whole< I believe the driving laws need to be re-evaluated and revised to prohibit driving before at least 18 or after completing high school, whichever comes later.

Sandra Lee Smith of AZ 11:21PM September 28, 2009