In the final installment of the National Teen Driver Safety Week series, the Middlesex car accident attorneys want to be sure that all teens and parents are aware of the real dangers facing novice drivers when they have too many passengers in their vehicles.
Marlton, NJ (PRWEB) October 19, 2012
In the final installment of the National Teen Driver Safety Week series, the Middlesex car accident attorneys want to be sure that all teens and parents are aware of the real dangers facing novice drivers when they have too many passengers in their vehicles. The third week of each October has been focused on teen driver safety since the observance was first recognized by Congress in 2007.*
Although many graduated driver licensing programs (provisional licenses) have limitations on the number of passengers a novice driver can have in the car with them, there are still great hazards with even a limited number of people in the car. Teens are two-and-a-half times more likely to partake in risky behaviors while driving if they have just one teenage passenger, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).** The NHTSA data also illustrated that the passenger does not have to be actively encouraging this behavior for it to occur, in fact, they found that most often the mere presence of a peer was enough to make the teen driver act carelessly.**
Piscataway auto accident lawyer, Richard P. Console, Jr. believes that one of the best ways to reduce the high number of accidents occurring as the result of teens having passengers in their car is through education.
“The major problem here is that they are inexperienced drivers and as such are not prepared to handle the responsibilities of operating a vehicle while still engaging in a conversation with a passenger,” Console said. “It is imperative that parents pick up enforcement where the law falls short and make sure that their children are able to handle having passengers.”
Console suggests that in states where the law does not always limit the number of passengers allowed in the car with a novice driver and for all teens, parents must:
- Drive with the teens and monitor their progress and ability to drive safely with a passenger in the vehicle
- Never allow their teenager to drive with more than one passenger at a time until they are more experienced
- Do not allow teens to have passengers when it is dark outside
The statistics show that this problem is much more common with males than females. It has been shown that male teen drivers are six times more likely to perform an illegal action while driving when they have a peer passenger, and they are twice as likely to drive aggressively before crashing than when driving alone, according to Teen Driver Source.*** Of the teen drivers involved in accidents, 71 percent of males and 47 percent of females said they were distracted by a passenger’s motions or actions immediately before their crash.***
Console believes that through education as well as providing a good example for our children, we can all work together to reduce the high number of teen driver car accidents. The Piscataway injury lawyers at Console & Hollawell have dedicated their professional lives to educating the public about dangerous risk factors on the road, including those created by teen drivers.
- http://www.teendriversource.org/more_pages/page/history_of_national_teen_driver_safety_week_/teen
** http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/traffic_tech/811613.pdf
*** http://www.teendriversource.org/stats/researcher/detail/63
For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/10/prweb10004791.htm
This article (Part 5: New Jersey Car Accident Attorneys at Console & Hollawell Warn Teens of Distraction Caused by Passengers in Recognition of National Teen Driver Safety Week) was originally developed by and is property of American Banking News. Checkout American Banking News for up-to-date banking news and peer to peer lending news.