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With vehicle crashes killing our teen drivers at an alarming rate, one controversial teen driving safety expert is encouraging parents of young drivers to ‘brand’ their cars with a ‘new driver’ sign for all to see.
Corinne Fortenbacher, president of RookieDriver.Net, a leading provider of safety driving tools and active blogger providing driving tips for parents, says that ‘identifying’ your young driver behind-the-wheel with a ‘branded’ recognized symbol could help millions of parents in charge of the frightening task of teaching their teens how to drive each year. Here’s why:
Vehicle crashes are killing ourteen drivers at an alarming rate, according to Fortenbacher, a leading teen driving safety advocate. “Put simply, a young driver starts out as a poor driver due to their lack of experience,” Fortenbacher states. “Most people don’t consider the fact that although most states have drivers education classes, parents are largely responsible fortheir teens’ behind-the-wheel training and driving lessons.”ÂÂ
She cautions that the average student driver education classes provide new drivers with only 6 hours of ‘behind the wheel’ training and driving lessons and then parents are personally in charge of the ‘real-life’ on-the-road parent taught drivers ed while young drivers are on their learning permit. According to Fortenbacher, parents are terrified when they climb into the passenger seat alongside their new teen in the driver’s seat. And even more terrifying is the fact that other drivers have no clue that a completely inexperienced kid is in command of the car.
Fortenbacher tells parents that her nationally recognized ‘Rookie Driver’ symbols to identify new drivers need to move from ‘should-have’ status to ‘must-have’ status. “Parents should insist the vehicle their teen is driving is clearly marked, or ‘branded’ as a new driver, while driving with their parent on a learner permit, so other drivers can easily see that there is an inexperienced driver at the wheel.
“Alerting other drivers on the road with our easily identified symbol allows other drivers to quickly anticipate common new driver mistakes, increasing safety for both the young driver and parent accompanying them,” she stresses. Tens of thousands of parents have ordered the new driver signs since RookieDriver.Net introduced them in 2006, according to Fortenbacher.
Do kids want these symbols adorning their cars? ”Probably not,” admits Fortenbacher. “But our products provide a clearly ‘branded’ solution to identifying a new driver’s vehicle while driving with a parent.” She adds, “Don’t make the common mistake of using a student driver sign as these give a false sense of security. It’s so important for other drivers to be able to clearly and quickly differentiate between student drivers, accompanied by certified driver training teachers in dual-brake vehicles, and young drivers who are provisionally licensed, accompanied by their parents.”ÂÂ
The Rookie Driver car magnets and stickers were designed with the help of Fortenbacher’s 15 year-old son and his friends, to be more appealing to young drivers — they have a unique style and name which is more acceptable to teens, she says. And they are easily removed when mom or dad is driving the car.
But there has been controversy too. A recent study reignites debate over the New Jersey teen driver decal law, mandating new driver stickers for all teen drivers until they are 20. Fortenbacher disagrees with government making it mandatory to identify all teen drivers, especially after they are fully licensed, and points to comments made by parents in a recent survey.
A recent online poll asked visitors: Should new young drivers have stickers on their cars identifying them as teen drivers? Although 73% thought it was a good idea while driving on a learners permit with their parents, most of the respondents argued that the government should not be involved, stating that it should be a parental decision, not a government mandated route.
Hardly any of the objectors denied the fact that road crashes were killing more teens than anything else, with 16-year-olds having higher crash rates than drivers of any other age. However, most parents simply didn’t want a solution advanced by lawmakers.
A lot of remarks were similar to this parent’s comment. “If government mandated teen driver stickers, it would be just another example of states looking at legislation instead of driver education to solve the teen driving problem. If we, as parents, just taught our young drivers how to drive we wouldn’t need half the laws we have restricting them. Choosing only a legislative route to saving lives would be so unfortunate.”
Fortenbacher concludes, “Parents must increase awareness of new drivers, and it is a parents’ responsibility to insist that their child is taking advantage of every safety driving tool available. There are better ways to teach teens to drive, especially with vast resources available on the internet. Parents must take full charge – absolute authority when a teenager begins driving. Today you are parents with a child. Do everything you can so you are not one of those families who have lost their child.”
Corinne Fortenbacher’s website can be viewed at http://www.RookieDriver.Net – her blog, providing driving tips on all aspects of safe teen driving and parent taught drivers ed help, can be viewed at http://rookiedriver.wordpress.com
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