this in the coming months, possibly from your driver’s ed. instructor, your department of motor vehicles, or from other sources. I won’t belabor the subject, but I would like you to consider just a few things:
—First, as a teenager, you are more likely to die in an automobile than anywhere else, whether you are the driver or a passenger. That’s not to say it will happen. Although the odds are very small—about 13 chances in 100,000 if you’re a male and about 6 in 100,000 if you’re a female—the danger is real.
—Second, if you make it through your first three years as a driver, your survival odds will improve substantially. That’s important to remember. It means you must be extra careful during your early years as a driver, because that’s when you are the most vulnerable to death and injury.
—Third, and this is something you may not have heard before, even if you have acquired very good driving skills, they will not necessarily lower the odds of your having a serious crash during your teen years. It’s a little known fact, but true. Several studies of this phenomenon all have reached the same conclusion. Why? Researchers aren’t certain, but their best guess is that good driving skills don’t prevent crashes unless they are accompanied by good driving behavior.
Teens have a natural tendency to take risks. Driving fast is risky, but it also is an exhilarating experience. Yes, it can be fun.
Here’s where the danger comes in, even for the most skilled drivers: Instead of remaining cautious and tentative, as they should while they’re still learning, many teens use their newfound freedom behind the wheel to test limits. They barrel down highways, whip in and out of lanes, and challenge other drivers, especially other teens. They become instant aggressors, and quite often, alcohol or drugs enter the picture.
You know the rest. You also know this is true. If you’re in high school, you’ve seen it all around you.
You should also know, if you didn’t already, that males are more than twice as likely to cause serious crashes as females. On the other hand, the crash total for males has been declining over the past 20 years, while the total for females has been rising. More and more female drivers are taking to the roads as aggressively as males—and paying a high price for their risky behavior.
That’s why it’s extremely important that you develop the right attitude toward driving along with good skills. Skills will only take you so far. When things go bad on the road, they can go bad very, very quickly. You can find yourself suddenly in a situation you can’t handle. No matter how good you think you are, many driving hazards can overwhelm you. Only the proper attitude will help you avoid those hazards before they arise.
—Fourth, though there are many things in your life that are your business—what you think, how you dress, who you like, the music you listen to—driving is different. Driving is something you do on public roads, sharing space with lots of other people of different ages and viewpoints. What they do affects you, and what you do affects them.
I’m not telling you any of this to discourage you from driving, or to make you feel depressed. I’m not even trying to spoil your fun, but driving doesn’t have to be dangerous to be fun. You can enjoy it just as much by doing it well, by knowing what to do in just about every situation, and by improving the safety of the roadway, not reducing it.
I want to try to raise your consciousness, to give you a heightened awareness about what driving in the United States really means today. I want to give you a healthy, positive approach to being behind the wheel.
So please consider carefully all of the material contained in this book. Be patient and accept the instruction that your parent or guardian will attempt to give you. Take the time to allow your skills to develop into habits.
As long as you are involved in the learning process, stick to the practices I have outlined. Later on, you might decide you want to depart from them. They might seem too tame for you. Or, you may choose other ways of doing things that suit you better.
Let me assure you: What you learn here, if practiced consistently, will never let you down. The techniques are solid. The attitude will help you to travel lightly, safely and enjoyably along the roads and through neighborhoods. Together, they will help you avoid doing harm to yourself or anyone else. That’s a goal worth striving for.
GETTING STARTED
[PARENTS]
The First Question to Ask: Is Your Child Ready?
I’ll say it at the outset. My personal opinion is that few if any teenagers are ready to drive with no restrictions at age 16—let alone 15 or 14. It is a major risk to allow them onto today’s highways.
Furthermore, the statistics are undeniable. Sixteen is the most dangerous age for drivers, followed closely by 17 and 18. Yet year after year, many parents routinely allow their kids to obtain learners’ permits even before they reach 16. They’ll take their teens for their licenses on their birthdays, as if the age automatically qualified them to drive. Granted, many states allow kids to obtain licenses on their 16th birthdays, but that doesn’t make it right.
It is a mistake to assume that state governments know what’s best for your child. On today’s dangerous highways, inexperience and poor judgment frequently make a lethal combination. Driving is a critical area where your parental maturity and concern should prevail. Not state regulations, no matter how well-intentioned. Not peer pressure.
There seems to be a widespread attitude of resignation among parents: Let the kids have their licenses, ready or not, and hope for the best. In most cases, nothing dramatic or tragic happens. Maybe there’s a fender-bender or two, but no worse. Good fortune wins over good sense.
I am convinced this is not a sound approach. Too many children are harmed because they simply do not understand how much power they are attempting to control when they get behind the wheel. Or, they have not been trained properly, so they put themselves into situations they cannot overcome when things go wrong. Or, as so many kids do, they think they cannot be harmed, so despite the skills they have learned they do harm themselves—and often their passengers.
That’s the key thing to remember here: Most of the time, nothing happens, but when something does, either it’s too late to help or the young driver’s skills are insufficient. Usually, it’s both. Yet good driving habits are surprisingly easy to learn; they simply must be practiced, repeatedly. They also must be accompanied by good judgment, which takes time to develop.
Most important, driving skills cannot be used properly unless they are reflexive. You can’t think about evasive actions while you’re executing them. It takes too long. When needed, skills must be automatic, and they can become automatic only by practicing them, over and over, for months and months and months.
There is no other way.
Think of playing a musical instrument. You can’t sit down at the piano and perform like an expert right away. It takes lots and lots of time to read the music, to learn technique, to strengthen the muscles guiding the hands and the fingers, to develop senses of rhythm and emphasis. When you learn to play a melody, you no longer think about the individual notes. Instead, your fingers feel the sequence. They move faster than you can think. The skill displayed by playing well is performed by a different part of the brain than conscious thinking.
Driving works the same way. If you had to think about every single thing you were doing, you’d be tense constantly and you’d become fatigued quickly. For example, whenever you drive through thick fog or rain or snow, particularly at night, you tend to search every foot of the road almost frantically for a sudden obstruction or change. Time seems to slow down. It takes forever to go anywhere. Your muscles tense. Your heart rate elevates. You have a general feeling of unease. After a brief time, you become very tired.
On the other hand, in clear weather with good visibility on a familiar roadway, you are at ease. You don’t exert conscious effort. Just like playing a well-practiced tune on the piano, you drive automatically. It’s second nature.