Teens drive more safely in the months after a crash
Teens' risky driving drops considerably in the two months following a serious collision, according to new research. The research, involving data on actual driving behavior from over 250 teens, suggests that involvement in a severe crash may prompt adolescents to engage in safer driving behavior. Ref. Source 7v.
It is sad that it would take this. Putting car keys in the hands of a 16 year old is frightening in general if you think about it. They think they are immortal, think they know it all and can be reckless. In addition they have little to no driving experience to fall back on. I don't know how I survived driving at 16 and I was more cautious than a lot of my friends.
That was like almost yesterday for you Kyrroeth?
I have taught a few teens how to drive and then watched them drive off on their own and it seems they forgot everything they were taught. Sometimes it does take a traumatic incident to learn a valuable lesson in driving for them to understand that it is not all fun and games.
This is kind of what I did with my oldest two. I would remind them they were still new drivers and needed more experience when they would get cocky. I would tell them it isn't that they are bad drivers but that they hadn't seen what other crazy drivers could do or react to certain things on the road. In this way I wasn't attacking their skills, I just reminded them they were young drivers and needed more experience.