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| Updated: 10/15/2012 8:45 am |
Published: 10/14/2012 5:28 pm |
Monday begins National Teen Driving Safety Week, and teen drivers are most likely to get into a crash in their first year of driving. That's according to State Farm Insurance.
State Farm Insurance now also says that parents' conversations with teens drop by about 50-percent after they get licenses.
"The two most dangerous things a parent can let a teen get into a car with them is another teen or a cell phone," says Gary Stephenson with State Farm Insurance.
For Stephenson, cell phones can be the worst distraction young drivers face on the road.
"Teens, since they were four years old, they've had them. They're growing up doing this, so it doesn't look scary, it doesn't look like a dangerous item," says Stephenson.
If used behind the wheel, cell phones can be deadly. That's something Stephenson wants parents to talk with their teens about.
"The worst thing a parent can do is stop talking to a child when he or she gets a license. Continue those conversations and that helps the changes of the teen continuing good practices," says Stephenson.
State Farm Insurance suggests parents follow the three Cs: conduct- model the behavior you want your kids to follow in front of them, contract- make a written driving agreement with your child, and conversation- never stop talking to your teen about save driving.
"A teen driver can not possibly be as experienced or knowledgeable a driver that he or she is a 16 as they will be at 30 or 35. You cannot fast track experience, life experiences or know-how," he says.
Stephenson also says Arkansas' relatively new graduated license program for teens has saved dozens of lives since 2009.
