NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — AAA Kansas is commemorating National Teen Driver Safety Week. The important thing is to teach those good habits at every opportunity.
"AAA's really urging parents to be involved and be engaged as possible with their teen drivers as they are in that learning to drive process," said Shawn Steward with AAA Kansas. "Make sure they are prepared and safe as possible when they get out on the road."
According to the Kansas Department of Transportation, drivers ages 15-19 were involved in 11,416 crashes on Kansas roadways in 2022, resulting in 3,996 injuries and 50 fatalities.
"There's a lot of characteristics that are common in fatal teen crashes," Steward said. "Some of those things are driver error and inexperience, which makes sense. If you've never experienced a situation on the road, you may not know how to act and respond. Speeding is another big issue going on, not only with teen drivers, but all drivers. Single-vehicle crashes seem to be very common with teens. That could be a lack of focus, distracted driving, so the teenager maybe runs off the side of the road and overcorrects and loses control. Passengers play a big role, as well. The more passengers, especially under 21 passengers, the more passengers that teen drivers have in the vehicle, the higher the risk is for crashes. Night driving is another thing as well. Often because of inexperience, those teen drivers may not be as safe driving at night."
The risk of motor vehicle crashes is higher among teens ages 16-19 than among any other age group. Teen drivers in this age group have a fatal crash rate almost three times as high as drivers ages 20 and older per mile driven, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
"Have your child go through an accredited drivers ed program," Steward said. "Whether that's through the school district, if it's offered, or a private driving instructor, that can pay big dividends and it can get you a discount on your insurance. Require your teens to log as many hours of supervised practice behind the wheel with you as a parent, or another adult in the vehicle. We like to suggest at least 100 hours of supervised practice. The state of Kansas requires 50, ten of those being at night. The more you can practice and the more different experiences on the road that your teen driver experiences can only help. Nighttime driving, driving in the rain, driving on highways versus city streets, just give them a variety and plenty of hours of practice is the big thing."
AAA resources available for parents include the AAA Teen Driver Safety website to coach their teen through the learning-to-drive process and Smart Start Parent Course, a one-hour live action DVD and illustrated in-car handbook that parents can use to support supervised driving lessons. These and other parent/teen resources are available on TeenDriving.AAA.com.