Teens Trade No. 2s and Gym Clothes for V6s and Open Roads What parents can do to help ensure safe summer driving for their teens
(July 7, 2005) – With mountains of homework from the last school year in their rearview mirrors, teen drivers across the country are donning shades, fueling up and hitting the roads to take full advantage of their summer break freedom.
Whether your teens are heading to the beach or the lake with friends, working a summer job or just spending time at home, chances are they are going to be driving more than usual. With a little extra time on their hands, summer also provides a perfect opportunity for teens to take some simple maintenance steps for their cars. Checking tire pressure and tread wear, for example, are precautionary steps that can help ensure your teen’s car is in safe driving condition.
The Bridgestone Americas family of companies works with the non-profit organization Driver’s Edge (www.driversedge.org) to help keep teens safe on the road. Together, they have come up with these following safe driving tips for your teen before they hit the road this summer.
Tips for Avoiding Accidents:
- Be aware. Your eyes are the most important tool you have as a driver. Use them. Anticipate what may happen instead of reacting to what has already happened.
- Avoid distractions: cell phone, radio, eating food when driving. Tragedy can strike in the blink of an eye. Stay focused.
- Look ahead to anticipate where you want to go
- Use two hands on the wheel at all times (in the 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. or 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. wheel positions due to airbags) for quick and precise directional change
- Familiarize and practice anti-lock brake system (ABS) braking
- Avoid jerky steering or braking
- Increase distance between cars during inclement weather
- Use headlights and flashers when appropriate
- Pull off the road when conditions warrant (heavy rain, for example)
- When a car is disabled, do not stand near the vehicle while awaiting assistance
- Map directions in advance so you do not have to be map reading while driving
Tire Maintenance Tips:
- Check tire tread—Here’s an easy test for tires on passenger vehicles: place a U.S. penny into several tread grooves around the tire with Lincoln’s head facing down. If you can see the top of Lincoln’s head (or 2/32”) at spot, you are below the minimum tread depth and the tire should be replaced.
- Check tire pressure —Properly inflate all four tires, plus the spare, to the vehicle manufacturer’s recommended levels. This information is generally listed on the door jamb or in the owner’s manual. Tires can lose up to one pound per square inch (psi) per month. Use an accurate tire gauge to check tire air pressure monthly and always when the car is cool —meaning the car has been driven less than one mile or has not moved in at least three hours.
- Rotate tires — For maximum mileage, tires should be rotated every 5,000 miles. The owner’s manual should be consulted for the correct rotation pattern.
What Parents Can Do:
- Talk to your kids. Even the best kids make poor decisions. Many teen lives are lost because the teen is more afraid of calling mom and dad to ask for help than they are of taking a chance at getting behind the wheel when they find themselves in a compromising situation. Don’t let your teen become a statistic. Let your teen know that they can count on you.
- Know with whom your teen is riding. As a parent, not only should you be concerned about your own teen’s driving, you should also be concerned about with whom your teen is riding.
- Limit the number of passengers that your teen is allowed to have in the car. Teen motor vehicle fatalities drastically increase with every additional passenger in the vehicle.
- Constantly remind your teen to wear a seatbelt. In 66 percent of all motor vehicle fatalities for ages 16-20, the teen was not wearing a seatbelt.
In addition to these tips, parents can help dispel these common myths:
- Anti-lock Brake Systems (ABS) make your car stop faster. Actually, they don’t. ABS are safety devices to keep tires from locking up during panic braking. They also allow drivers to maintain the ability to steer the car while braking.
- To recover from a skid, steer in the direction of the skid. This one is true but confuses most people. Drivers should look and steer in the direction they were originally driving and always look and steer toward safety.
- Airbags make seatbelts unnecessary. Airbags are designed to work in conjunction with seatbelts, which should ALWAYS be worn.
- An airbag is a soft, cushiony way to prevent head injuries. Ask anyone who has had an airbag deploy, and they’ll say that there was nothing soft about it. Airbags are made of a thick canvas-like material that expands at a rate of approximately 200 miles per hour. Proper seat positioning and hand placement are crucial in avoiding injuries should an airbag deploy.
Keeping your teens safe, even when they think they are too old or too wise for advice, is part of your job as a parent. When you offer last-minute reminders to your teens as they head out the door for their summer adventures, remember that the road to safety can begin with your help as a parent.
Driver’s Edge (www.driversedge.org), a non-profit corporation, is a no-cost educational program for young drivers (aged 15-21) that teaches real life emergency avoidance and response techniques and overall driver safety. The innovative program is taught on an ongoing basis in Las Vegas, Nev., with annual national tour stops visiting multiple U.S. cities each year. The program is funded entirely by corporate sponsorship, public grants and charitable donations.
Nashville-based Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC is a subsidiary of Bridgestone Americas Holding, Inc., whose parent company, Bridgestone Corporation, is the world's largest tire and rubber company. BFNT develops, manufactures and markets Bridgestone, Firestone and associate and private brand tires. The company is focused on wholesale and original equipment markets, supplying passenger, light truck, commercial vehicle, off-road, motorcycle, agricultural and other tires to its customers in North America.