Family driving rules can save teen lives: study

Parents, beware: giving in to teens' demands for their own cars can have dangerous consequences, new research suggests.

Teenagers with their own cars or free use of one are much more likely to get in crashes than those who share a car. And crashes are much less common among teens whose parents set clear driving safety rules, two studies by researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia suggest.

Accidental deaths

The findings were released Friday andwill appearin the October issue of Pediatrics.

The researchers, whose work was funded by State Farm Insurance Co.,say the findings could help parents keep their kids from becoming a grim statistic. Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens, killing more than 5,000 each year.

Getting a driver's licence and a car are often viewed as a rite of passage for teens, and many parents underestimate the risks associated with driving.

More than 7,000 people across the U.S. were killed in crashes involving teen drivers in 2007, government data show. More than 3,000 of the casualties were the teen drivers themselves, and more than 250,000 teen drivers were injured.

"With teen drivers, you have to recognize that it's a public health issue," said Dr. Jeffrey Weiss, a Phoenix pediatrician who co-wrote an American Academy of Pediatrics report on teen drivers.

Taking driving seriously

The 2006 report encourages parents to highlight the seriousness of driving privileges by requiring teens to sign driving contracts promising to abide by safety rules.

The new research shows that kind of hands-on approach pays off.

"Families need to know that driving is different" from other steps toward independence,said Dr. Flaura Koplin Winston, the study's lead author.

"Just at the time their teen is pulling away, they need to get back involved to spare them heartache," she said.

The research is based on a nationally representative survey of more than 5,500 teens in grades nine through 11. Students at 68 high schools answered questionnaires in 2006.

More than 2,000 students who reported driving on their own were the focus of one study; 70 per cent of them said they had their own cars or were the main drivers of cars they used.

Winston said it's alarming that so many kids have their own cars or feel that they have free use of a vehicle.

She said that freedom can lead to "a sense of entitlement about driving" that may make teens less cautious.

Among these "main" drivers, 25 per cent had been involved in crashes, versus just 10 per cent of teens who shared a vehicle.

Winston said the lower crash rate doesn't reflect less driving time but is likely due to having to ask for the car keys, which helps parents monitor their kids' driving.

Compared with teens whose parents were uninvolved, kids who said their parents set clear rules and monitored their whereabouts without being overly controlling had half as many crashes and much better driving habits.

These teens were 71 per cent less likely to drive while drunk and 30 per cent less likely to use a cellphone while driving than kids with uninvolved parents.

Dr. Niranjan Karnik, a University of Chicago specialist in adolescent mental health, said the research underscores the importance of appropriate parenting and graduated licensing laws for teens.

Keeping kids safe

Debby Hendricks of Hatfield, Pa., made her daughters wait until they were 17 to get their licences and gave them lots of driving practice beforehand.

The girls, age 17 and 19, share a family car and can't "just grab the keys and leave" without saying where they're going and with whom, Hendricks said.

So far so good neither girl has been in an accident, although the younger one, Leslie, has only had her licence for a few months.

Leslie considers herself a safe driver but admits, "I probably do underestimate the risks."