This is National Teen Driver Safety Week (October 20-26, 2024), and the Alabama Department of Transportation is encouraging parents to take the opportunity to have a conversation with teens about safe driving habits.
Traffic crashes are a leading cause of death for 15-20-year-olds. In 2022, there were 80 fatal crashes in Alabama involving drivers ages 15-19. Teen drivers need to know the rules of the road before parents hand over the keys.
“Parents play a critical role in teaching teen drivers safe driving habits,” said Allison Green, Drive Safe Alabama coordinator. “New teen drivers lack experience behind the wheel, which increases the chance of dangerous situations for the teen and other roadway users around them. This is why it’s so important for parents to model safe driving behaviors themselves and have discussions with their teens about the choices they make to keep everyone on the road safe.”
It’s a parent’s responsibility to help teen drivers make smart choices to stay safe on the road. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gives parents and guardians tips on how to talk about safer driving. These tips include discussions on how to influence positive behaviors and how to approach dangerous and deadly driving behaviors such as alcohol and other drug use, lack of seat belt use, distracted driving, speeding, or driving with passengers.
Alabama has a Graduated Driver License program to allow young drivers to gain driving experience before obtaining full driving privileges. It is important for teen drivers and their parents to know about the three stages of driving privileges.
URKeys2DRV
Drive Safe Alabama, the traffic safety program created by ALDOT, is one of several safety stakeholder groups leading the URKeys2DRV (Your Keys to Drive) Teen Driver Summit, October 25, at Coastal Alabama Community College in Bay Minette.
Hundreds of middle school and high school students from southwest Alabama are expected to attend the URKeys2DRV event. The summit is an interactive, educational day when students hear personal stories from speakers impacted by teen driving crashes. The students will use driving simulators to experience the challenges of driving distracted. Students will also wear goggles that simulate the effects of alcohol and marijuana impairment while performing simple tasks.
URKeys2DRV is led by Children’s of Alabama, the Alabama Department of Transportation, State Farm, the Alabama Sports Festival Foundation, the Alcohol Beverage Control Board and Safe Kids Alabama.
