When nagging's okay

This study was conducted for the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, funded by auto insurer State Farm and involving interviews with 5,665 American high school students.

While these facts may be boring, old, even irritating to some, they are nonetheless important. Parents and young drivers need to pay attention.

Consider the Children's Hospital study a mandatory refresher course in Teen Driving 101, along with it's equally important co-requisite: Parenting a Teen Driver.

And since, oh joy, Youngest Son will turn 16 within the year and I will soon find myself back in the passenger's seat clutching the dashboard and stomping on the invisible brake pedal, this reminder comes at a good time.

Not that my memory needs much jogging. I still have, courtesy of my two now 20-something G-licensed offspring, vivid memories of those early practice sessions with the neck-wrenching braking and heart-stopping left turns into oncoming traffic.

Reading the study did jog my memory about the findings of past studies on young drivers: the risk of a teenage driver dying increasing with each additional passenger, their failure to buckle up, the increased nighttime fatal crash rate and the drowsy driving.

Road crashes are still the leading cause of death and injury to young people. Granted, graduated licensing programs, such as the one instituted in Ontario in 1994, have been effective in reducing teen driver collisions.

(An interesting aside here: Research has found that parents are better able to establish and enforce their own in-house driving rules when there is a graduated driver licensing program.)

However, while a graduated system does allow new drivers to acquire driving skills gradually in low-risk driving situations, driving is still a complex task. It's a skill that unfortunately not everyone is good at.

A lack of experience, plus driver immaturity, less developed vehicle control skills, poor hazard perception and reckless behaviour can all add up to a lethal combination for many young motorists.

So parents, ignore the groans of protest, the rolling eyeballs, the attitude, sit the kid down and have a conversation (converse, don't lecture) about driving, your expectations, and the responsibilities and rules that come with the keys to the family car.

Remember, too, to familiarize your new licencee with the car(s) they'll be regularly driving, plus go over personal safety precautions and basic servicing.

And, much to your child's chagrin, that one good talk won't be the end of it either. Each and every time they head out, there should be answers to the standard list of questions: where to, with whom, and who's driving what?

But parents don't just get to talk; their example counts.

Don't want your teen to multitask while driving? Don't do it when you're behind the wheel. Drive carefully, your child is watching.

One study found that children whose parents had three or more violations such as speeding, following too closely or reckless driving were 38 per cent more likely to have violations on their own records than teens whose parents had none.

Likewise, teens whose parents had three or more crashes on their record were 22 per cent more likely to crash.

Practice does help, so continue to have your G-licensed teen drive while you're a passenger, exposing them to as many different driving conditions (snow, fog, nighttime), and situations (multi-lane highways, busy urban streets) as possible.

Granted, nobody likes a nag, but this is a time when periodic reminders about safe driving are important – for both parent and child.