Watching your teen reach the milestone of obtaining his or her driver’s license can be an exciting and joyous moment in life. However, since most teens may lack the necessary experience to safely operate a motor vehicle, you might have questions about what steps you can take to help protect your child’s well-being.
Part of helping your teen prepare to promote safety and mitigate crash risks while out on California roads could involve discussing the importance of defensive driving. This conversation could help your child understand what types of behaviors to avoid and help him or her take steps to develop safer driving habits.
Defensive driving topics
Talking to teens about defensive driving can be integral to helping them cultivate healthier driving behaviors, and there may be a variety of topics to cover during this discussion, such as:
- Constant awareness: Talking about the importance of maintaining constant awareness of your surroundings could be vital to helping your teen better prepare to handle a variety of driving scenarios.
- Avoiding distractions: Distracted driving remains a common issue among teen drivers, and discussing the types of distractions and the dangers involved may be vital to protecting against such behavior.
- Speed and spacing: Addressing topics such as driving at proper speeds and allowing adequate spacing may also be vital, as speeding and tailgating continue to be contributing factors in many collisions.
- Never assume: It may also be helpful to talk about why it is important to never assume nearby drivers will always yield the right-of-way, as this could help reduce the risk that your teen may encounter a dangerous situation.
Discussing topics such as being familiar with routes and how to adjust driving behaviors during wet weather conditions can also be essential to cultivating safety and reducing car accident risks.
When a collision occurs
While helping your child develop defensive driving strategies could prove beneficial in various ways, there is only so much one can control on the open road. Should your child cross paths with a negligent driver, he or she might find it nearly impossible to react in time to avoid an ensuing collision. Receiving a call notifying you that your child has suffered severe injuries in a crash can be a devastating experience, and the fallout of the situation could leave you in search of advice on your available legal avenues.
