About one-third of all fatal car
crashes are caused by speeding, but for 16- and 17-year-old drivers, the
numbers rise to almost half when there are three or more passengers, according
to a new study.
Motor vehicle crashes are the
leading cause of death for teens, according to the Federal Highway Safety
Administration.
This week is National Teen Driver
Safety Week, and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety released its latest
findings to highlight how the prevalence of risky behavior generally grows for
drivers ages 16 and 17 when teen passengers are present.
For 16- and 17-year-old drivers
involved in fatal crashes, the analysis found:
Prevalence of speeding increased
from 30 percent with no passengers to 44 percent with two and to 48 percent
with three or more.
Prevalence of alcohol similarly
rose from 13 percent to 17 percent and 18 percent.
The foundation analyzed data on
fatal crashes in the United
States from 2005 through 2010. Researchers
found 9,578 drivers age 16 and 17 were involved in fatal crashes, and that
3,994 of these included at least one teen passenger. All risk factors were more
common
among male drivers.
New York State's graduated driver licensing program, which
took effect Sept. 1, 2003,
limits teens with learner permits and junior licenses to driving only from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. in Nassau and Suffolk, except
for limited travel to work, school and driver's education, with proof required.
It also caps the number of passengers under 21, among other restrictions.
An earlier foundation report found
loud conversation and horseplay were substantially more common with multiple teen
passengers than with siblings or adult passengers.
Re-posted by Vincent Rush of Lynx Telematics, developers of the LynxSafe Teen Driving Monitor.
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These are some of the very reasons that we developed the
LynxSafe Teen Driving Monitor.
One of the scariest days in any parent’s life is that moment
you hand them the keys for their first night out on the town.
As my own Mother has often said; “I would lie awake every
night, until I heard the garage door open. Only then, could I get good nights
sleep!”
Actually, if Mom had known the way I was driving; those
nights would have been even more restless!
After a personal family tragedy involving teen driving, I
began to really think about my two children that had yet to begin the driving
process and made the determination that I would not sit back and do nothing,
other than say a prayer and keep my fingers crossed.
Telematics has been on the rise over the past few years and
has really made a leap into mainstream public, thanks to a gal named Flo and
Progressive Insurance’s product offering called “Snap Shot”
“Snap Shot” is a product that simply plugs into your vehicles
diagnostic port and harvests data, based on driving habits, for the insurance
company.
Known as UBI (User Based Insurance), the insurance company’s
actuaries will assign a risk assessment profile to the individual driver and
either slightly increase or lower premiums based on the data accumulated.
As one insurance company CEO recently remarked to me;
“Telematics is to the insurance industry, what credit score was five years
ago.”
Credit scores used to be accurate indicators of a drivers
risk profile and predictors of the likelihood to be involved in an accident.
However, now that credit laws and new regulations on lending
have changed due to the economy, many people that were previously considered
“good credit profiles” are now considered marginal to poor, due to no fault of
their own.
What was once an accurate indicator of risk factor for an
individual driver was now becoming viewed as increasingly inaccurate?
Telematics provided a “game changer” to the insurance
industry, with accurate indisputable driver profiling as a result of individual
driving habits and real time monitoring.
While this is a great product and many of the top insurance
companies are now moving to a UBI model, there is still a basic flaw to me; As
a parent, I want to know my kid is a bad driver….the second he is a bad driver
and not…2 weeks after it’s too late, when my insurance company tells me his
driver score went down 3 points.
The LynxSafe Teen Driving Monitor, by Lynx Telematics has
allowed us to develop device that simply plugs into the drivers diagnostic port
that allows a parent to monitor in real-time EXACTLY what their teen drivers
are doing behind the wheel.
Once the LynxSafe device is installed, a parent logs onto
their personal website and sets up parameters or rules, that they expect their
teenager to follow when behind the wheel.
Along with rules and boundaries, a parent or loved one,
chooses how they want to be notified, either by smart phone, with live map
locations when violations occur, or by any internet enabled device. As for me,
I like seeing on my smart phone exactly where my kid is…the moment they have
broken a rule.
For example, I want to eliminate his or her ability to text
and drive or browse his web enabled smart phone, I can now take full control
over that deadly habit with our Anti-Texting” technology.
Next, thanks to a “Speed by Street” feature, I only want my
son to drive no more than 5mph over the speed limit on any given highway or
street.
With our “On Star” like capabilities, I can set up a
collision alert and have the peace of mind to know that if any fender bender
occurs, our 24/7 call center has already contacted my child before I even have
a chance to call.
I can also set up other parameters such as excessive RPM’s,
jack rabbit starts, panic breaking, cornering too hard as well as a special
feature called “Boundaries”
If my son or daughter happens to be grounded and I only want
to allow them to drive back and forth to school and work, I can set up a
boundary that will notify me the second they leave that zone or if they cut out
of school early, I will know the moment they leave the lot.
As a parent, I can also monitor specific engine diagnostics
such as low fluids, mechanical glitches and head off future expensive repairs.
Or if my daughter is at the movies and leaves her lights on,
I can be at home and receive an urgent alert that her battery has dipped below
12 volts thereby calling her to go start her car and avoid the potentially
unsafe practice of asking a stranger in a movie parking lot at 11:30pm for
assistance.
And thanks to a login screen that shows a live GPS location
of where my monitored vehicle is, I now never have to hear that excuse; “Sorry
Dad, my phone battery was dead.” Or “I apparently had no coverage.”
By the way, guess what car my Daughter will use for her
dates!
Our goal at LynxSafe, is not to “bust” our kids and have
cause to punish them rather to let them know that Mom and Dad, are still along
for the ride.
As our slogan says; “They have the license, they have the
keys…and now you have peace of mind!”
For more information on the LynxSafe Product by LynxTelematics, contact Vincent Rush at (513) 965-6318 or at vrush@lynxtelematics.com or visit http://lynxtelematics.com
