People may joke about getting off the roads when a teenager gets his or her license, but there is always some truth to jokes. While you can’t stay off the roads and can’t know which drivers are inexperienced teens, you can continue your safe driving habits, which may keep you from being involved in an accident.
It may help to better understand the mistakes teenage drivers are making as you endeavor to avoid ending up the victim of a young driver. Below are the most often cited behaviors drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 exhibit behind the wheel.
The most common issues with teen driving
Even experienced drivers make mistakes or engage in behaviors that make them a risk to others. However, experience helps to keep a mistake from becoming a tragedy. When teenagers do the following, their inexperience often does not provide the necessary skills to avoid a collision:
- Distracted driving is a continuously growing concern everywhere, including here in Kentucky. Anything that takes the focus off driving reduces the possibility of avoiding an accident and, in fact, increases the risk of causing one exponentially.
- Teens often fail to properly and continuously scan the roadway and their surroundings for obstacles and other hazards they need to avoid.
- Male teens are more likely to drive recklessly by racing, making risky lane changes and making illegal turns, but it is a danger for all teenage drivers.
- Teenage drivers may also not understand how their speed affects the ability to react in an emergency, especially when the road conditions require slowing down in order to remain safe.
- The legal drinking age may be 21, but that may not stop a teenage driver from drinking and then getting behind the wheel. This happens more often than anyone, especially parents, want to know.
- If the driver and passengers in a vehicle are all teenagers, the risk of dangerous behavior increases dramatically.
- Teenagers don’t remember a time when cell phones didn’t exist, and they use them constantly, even while driving. They will even read and send texts, post to social media and more even though they should be paying attention to the road and driving.
Sharing the road with teen drivers is unavoidable. As you travel, you will more than likely encounter many of them behind the wheel. All you can do is continue to pay attention and practice safe driving habits. However, there could come a time when that just isn’t enough to avoid a collision.
If you suffer injuries at the hands of a teenage driver, you may want to gain an understanding of your rights and legal options. A thorough case evaluation could reveal the best way for you to move forward in obtaining the compensation you deserve.