Travelogue: Teen drivers continue to struggle early

National Teen Safety Driver Week begins today, but a recent report showed new teen drivers struggle to drive safely, especially under certain circumstances. A AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety study showed that teen drivers are approximately 50 percent more likely to crash in the first month of driving on their own then after a full year of experience and nearly twice as likely to crash in that first month then after two years of experience.

Research found that new teen drivers had significant issues with failure to reduce speed, inattention and failure to yield. Mistakes in those areas led to 57 percent of the accidents recorded in the study. The study also found that some accidents decreased significantly after a few months of experience. One example was that crashes involving left hand turns were largely reduced after a few months of experience. The study also used in-car cameras to record teens’ driving habits. A large majority of the cameras recorded no unusual activity, but there were instances of running red lights, horseplay with passengers and texting while driving.

While Pennsylvania still does not have a no texting law for drivers of any age, there has been some progress. A bill that would limit teen drivers to one non-family passenger for the first sixth months, increase the requirement of 50 hours behind the wheel to 65 and make not wearing a seat belt a primary offense, is awaiting Gov. Tom Corbett’s signature.

But the AAA study recommends that parents not count on the government to make their sons and daughters better drivers. It’s recommended that they continue to ride with their teen even after he or she has a license. Also, there should be limits on the number of teens who can ride with them, limits on night time driving, and then making sure those rules are enforced with consequences. Even the best behaving teens aren’t above stretching the rules if a little peer pressure is involved. But remember a little parent pressure is just fine, too.

Each week, we’ll take a look at a situation where a driver had about 20 percent of his or her attention the road and the rest of it somewhere else. These are real occurrences witnessed by me while driving on the wonderful and varied roads in Delaware County. And, they will be an example of what not to do while driving.

This week involves a drive going north on Chester Pike and waiting for the left-hand turn light to go green onto South Avenue under the railroad tracks there. It was during the wait that one car nearly caused a multi-car accident.