Teach your Teens to Drive right

I was watching a documentary on the German Autobahn recently, and also reading the new Readers Digest which had an aritcle on Teen drivers.  Prodrive, one the companies we have a relationship with (Dadsworld.com members get $100 off their driving courses), has a skid car course that I HIGHLY recommend to you and your Teens.  We have known for a long time that the #1 cause of death for Teenagers is car crashes.  There are many, many terrible stories of teens getting killed while behind the wheel.  Over 5,000 teens die every year from car crashes, yet there is very little national attention given to teach teens how to drive properly.  If we saw this kind of a death rate from the war, or just about anything else, it would be front page news everyday.  Immaturity combined with inexperience is a recipe for disaster behind the wheel. 

The Readers Digest article has 3 recommendations: 1- Teach your kids.  2- Fight for Stricter State laws.  3- Get tough at home.

I am going to touch on #1 and #3, as those are the two areas I am very familiar with, and I live in Oregon which has good laws regarding the licensing process for teens.

TEACH YOUR KIDS-  Teens have poor judgement.  That’s a fact.  Their brains are not completely developed yet, so the same sorts of impulses that mature adults sort through, teens act on.  In addition, teens don’t understand the capabilites of cars, and what sort of things are risky.  Then you add in: boisterous friends, cell phones, a general lack of sleep that most teens operate on, potential for drug or alcohol use, and a host of other distractions and you can see why it’s so dangerous.

The best way I know to teach your kids about the vehicle dynamics of a car, and get a good lesson in what works and what doesn’t is to sign them up for a Driver Safety Class at Prodrive, located at Portland International Raceway in Portland, Oregon.  If you are a Dadsworld.com member (which is free) you get $100 off their course!  I strongly encourage you to take advantage of this.  Driving the skid car is fun, and extremely instructional.  They will spend 30 minutes in a classroom discussing what a car can and cannot do, and how to not only recover from skids and other problems, but how to avoid them in the first place.  Then they spend 2.5 hours in the car, putting into practice the concepts they just introduced.  Theory, followed by application.  A great class.  They teach ACTIVE driving, as opposed to PASSIVE driving that is so common.  As a participant in and teacher of the course, I think it should be REQUIRED for all drivers.  Visit their website at www.prodrive.net for more information, and be sure to sign up as a Dadsworld.com member to get the discount.  If you have teenage children, I don’t know how you couldn’t do this.

 In addition to the Prodrive course, you should sign your teen up for a driving course at a community college or other driving school.  I did this myself when I was a teen.  You get real-world practice in traffic with an instructor.  Another good way to lay the foundation of driving that will last your child the rest of their life.

GET TOUGH AT HOME- “You are the parent.”  You control who drives the car and when.  Take that control and put it to good use.  Create your own families plan of phasing your teens into driving.  Growing up in my home, my brother and I had to drive over 500 miles with Mom and Dad in the car before we were allowed to “solo.”  That was way before the phasing-in laws that our state now has.  We also had to prove ourselves to be responsible and exhibit good judgement on an ongoing basis, otherwise we risked losing our driving privilage.  It is still a privilage you know.  There is always the bus, a bike and your feet if your kids try to push this. 

Another good point is to lead by example.  Parents should go through the Skid Car class with their children.  As an instructor at Prodrive for several years, I saw many occasions where the parents would drop off their teens, then go on their way.  In all honesty, most of the adults out there need the course as much as their children do.  Really.  Make it something you do together as a family, and it will be easier to discuss the principles you learn later.  The VAST MAJORITY of parents set a bad example when it comes to driving, and that’s the truth.

I have been involved in high performance driving and racing since 1999, and one thing that did for me, (besides dramatically improve my own driving) is it made me aware of the lack of knowledge and skill the rest of the drivers on the road have.  Of course everyone you talk to will tell you that they are a great driver.  They back that up with arguments like “I’ve never had any tickets,” or “I grew up in the mountains and drove a lot in the snow”, or “I could drive like the F1 and Nascar drivers if I was given the chance,” etc.  The REALITY is, 99% of drivers on the road are severly limited in their skills behind the wheel.  Add that to the array of distractions drivers face on a dialy basis, and you come up with nearly 7 million car crashes per year in the U.S. alone.  7 MILLION!  As an instructor of not only driver safety courses, but high performance driving and racing as well, I have worked with hundreds, perhaps thousands of students.  Many of them car enthusiasts themselves.  The fact is, unless they are a professional race car driver with thousands of hours behind the wheel racing, testing and experimenting, drivers are not as skilled as they think they are.  Driving is a skill, just like golf.  You don’t become an expert just because you have played the game a lot.  It takes proper training, awareness, feedback and a whole heck of a lot of intense practice.  The fact that a lot of people drive nearly every day of their adult lives DOES NOT mean they have good skills.  I realize that I am going to offend a good many of my readers, especially the men who think they were born with the special “driving gene.”  But it’s too important to pass over.  Teach your children to drive right and learn to drive right yourself.

In the documentary about the Autobahn, one of the points they made was the difference in the philosophy of driving in Germany vs the United States.  For many years, German automakers couldn’t understand why Americans needed cupholders in their cars.  Driving in Europe is pursued as a singular purpose.  It takes full concentration and attention to do it properly.  You have lane discipline, you are aware of what’s coming up, you are probably driving a high performance car (Porsche, BMW, Mercedes).  It’s a different experience.  In America, the car has become woven into our everyday existance.  People eat, drink, even live in their cars.  There is no lane discipline, drivers weave in and out of lanes to get around slower cars.  Americans are distracted, tired and multi-tasking in their cars.  They are talking on the phone, applying makeup, even reading.  High performance driving is not something they are familiar with.  Driving in America is seen simply as a means to get from place to place.  Few Americans drive for the pleasure and sake of just driving.  And fewer yet even think about their ability and take action to improve their skills.

It’s no wonder that the German Autobahn has 12% fewer fatal crashes than the American Interstate system.  Even though nearly half of the autobahn has no posted speed limits.  To get a license in Germany, drivers training is mandatory.  And the cost of a license is roughly $1500 – $2000.  In Germany, the cars were far ahead of American cars (in safety and performance innovations) for most of the 20th century, the drivers are better trained, the roads are designed and maintained much better, and the entire culture of driving is taken more seriously.

The one thing you can do is train your own teens.  Be sure they are prepared, knowledgeable and mature enough to avoid bad situations.  This is serious business.  Teen crashes alone cost the rest of us $34 billion annually.  Not to mention the 5,000+ teens killed every year.  All of this is completely avoidable, with a little planning, learning and practice. 

I know my own kids are going to have extensive training from myself, Prodrive and other driving courses during their teen years.  It’s a life or death deal.  Choose life.

Tags: , autobahn, car crashes, dad, dadsworld, germany, high performance driving, mom, parenting, prodrive, racing, teens, united states