The Three Most Important Acts Your Teen Should Do Every Time They Drive

Seth Smiley here from the Smiley Law Firm. Today in the Parents of Teen Drivers Facebook Group, our topic is, “The three most important acts your teen should do every time they drive.”

These are great things to teach your teens because our brains work in threes, which makes it easier to remember things in sets of three things. Number one is to buckle up. Number two is getting properly familiar with the vehicle before you drive it.Number three is to put away all distractions.

Everybody knows how important it is to buckle up. It should automatically be the first thing you do when you get in your car. If you click that seatbelt, you win half the battle towards being safe. You then need to familiarize yourself with your vehicle. Check the mirrors, and the blinkers, adjust the seat, and generally make sure you know where everything is. Finally, you need to put all distractions away. As we have looked at before, this is the number one cause of teen accidents while driving.

The essential one is the cell phone. It is too much of a temptation to grab it while driving, so it needs to be put away whenever your teen driver enters the car. Some people say, to put it in the glove box or the console, but stats show it is safest for the cellphone should be switched off and placed in the trunk. You don’t want Bluetooth clicking on and your teen driver using hands-free as it is still a significant distraction. So, we are designed to learn things in threes, right? Get your teen driver to learn to buckle up, get familiar with the vehicle, and put away all distractions. If they can do that, we are going a long way toward keeping them safe behind the wheel. If you have some good tricks or mechanisms that you teach your kids when they drive, please share them below.

Thank you.