The moment has arrived when your teen is ready to learn how to drive. As a parent of a teen, you have been driving for many years and now it’s time to flashback when you were behind the wheel for the first time. How were you taught to drive? What teaching method worked for you and what didn’t help you learn? Some things have changed since then, such as cell phones becoming more of a distraction.
If you consider that approximately 8 percent of all Texas drivers in fatal crashes are between 15 and 18 years old, responsible and safe driving is essential for teens to understand and demonstrate every time they drive.
Behind the Wheel
It’s up to the parent to determine when a teen is ready to get in the driver’s seat and learn how to operate a vehicle. As a teen learns, there can be nervous moments from the parent and from the child. Having a plan before the lessons start can be helpful to keep parent and teen on the same page. This means knowing in advance where you will go and what techniques will be practiced.
Lessons can also be more productive if you use a checklist of safety measures to go through each time you are in the car with your teen. By following the checklist, you can help your teen driver with consistency and ensuring the steps become habits. Once they become habit, the teen can focus on what is happening on the road.
Rules of the Road
As your teen learns the laws, it is also a good time for a parent to refresh knowledge of the rules of the road. In Texas for example, teen drivers are now issued provisional driver’s licenses until they turn 18 years old. This is just one part of the Graduated Driver Licensing program that also includes stipulations such as no cell phone use at all.
Learning the laws and safety measures early on will help teen drivers become safe adult drivers and avoid getting into an auto collision. At ProCare Automotive and Collision, we are here to help if your teen does get into an accident and needs auto body repair on a vehicle. But we hope all of our teens remember to put safety first when driving.