Since that first time she slid behind the wheel of her dad’s Pontiac van as a 12-year-old and darted between rows of orange trees in rural Clermont, Jamie Grant has been raring to solo.
A year ago, when she turned 16, Jamie earned her driver’s license–and as she saw it, a slice of freedom. Her mother, Lynn, 40, an accountant weighed that development on a balance sheet.
On the plus side, Jamie could now taxi herself and sister, Katie, four times a week to dance lessons.
On the minus side, Lynn Grant had inherited another worry. Driving, she said, presents “one more opportunity to let them (your children) out of the glass bubble that keeps them safe. In that respect, it does add a few gray hairs.”
Premature graying aside, many parents want their teenagers to drive. Teen driving often frees parents from their chauffeuring duties and severs the cord linking Mom and Dad to their teenagers’ activity-filled schedules.
Even so, parents wrestle with welcoming the freedom and worrying about their teens’ safety.
Nationally, automobile accidents are the leading killer of people age 15 to 19. Thirty-five percent of all 16-year-old drivers were involved in a crash in 1994, the National Safety Council reported. The numbers declined to 31 percent for 17-year-olds and 27 percent for 18-year-olds.
Because of careers and other obligations, parents often cannot spend the time required to give their teens hands-on driving experience and tutoring.
Once a teen is behind the wheel, there is little a parent can do to ensure safety. But by evaluating their teenager’s maturity before he or she applies for a learner’s permit, providing ample practice time in the permit period and establishing limits once he or she has a license, parents can reduce their worries and help mold solid drivers.
“You’ve got to use common sense with kids about the dangers of driving,” said Tom Smith, director of the driver improvement division of a Florida chapter of the National Safety Council, “and you’ve got to be willing to be with them and willing to train them.”
Like most teenagers inching up on the age of driving consent, Kendra Holt was itching to get behind the wheel.
Her hankering did not escape the notice of her mother, Andrea, who recalls the sense of independence driving unlocked for her as a 16-year-old some 26 years ago.
Before Kendra could savor that freedom while cruising the streets of Winter Park near her home, Holt needed assurance that her daughter was mature enough to shoulder the responsibility.
A litmus test for forecasting good drivers is how teens handle their chores at home and their studies at school.
“If your child does not get passing grades, does not listen to established rules in the household, how is he going to be responsible enough to handle a 3,000-pound weapon?” said Smith, who oversees the council’s Safe Performance Driver Education program, a 36-hour video and on-the-road training course. “Those are the signs of maturity that you’re looking for.”
While working part-time as a telephone solicitor for the Florida Police Benevolent Association, Kendra kept her name etched on the honor roll at Winter Park High School.
At home, she sometimes stood in as caregiver for her grandfather, Andrew, 80, who has Alzheimer’s.
With the knowledge they had reared a responsible child, Holt and her husband, Bill, a food service contractor at Lockheed Martin, handed Kendra the keys to their Chevrolet Malibu.
“I had a major lump in my throat the first time she went out,” Holt said.
Though she still worries when Kendra drives, Holt enjoys more free time now that Kendra helps with errands.
“I think that it’s the biggest freedom I’ve ever received, and I love it,” Kendra said. “It’s so much fun, especially if you’re safe.”
It is up to parents to impose limits on their teen drivers, said Verda McNair, who along with her husband, Hugh, own the Easy Method Driving School in Orlando.
“You need rules . . . but sensible rules that you can talk over with them and explain why,” she said. “If you’re going to give rules, stand by them, don’t renege. If it’s worth the trouble of telling them not to do this, you have to back it up.”
Tony Skinner, an ex-Marine, and his wife, Margo, required son Bruce to tell them of his route before he left home. Skinner also shaved 15 minutes off the state’s mandatory curfew, requiring Bruce home at 10:45 p.m. Driving privileges could be summarily revoked if the University High School junior’s grades slipped or he was caught chauffeuring chums sans seat belts.
Though he has reared Bruce to be responsible, employing the same kind of no-nonsense, self-discipline Skinner learned in basic training at Parris Island, S.C., he still worries when his son sets out in his 1981 Ford Granada.
“It’s hard to explain what you’re thinking anytime a siren goes by or you hear about a crash on the news,” said Skinner, 40, an assistant superintendent of parking for Orlando. “You’re worrying about breakdowns, wrecks, drunk drivers, weirdos–you name it. Anything can happen out on the highway.”
Most accidents involving teenage drivers, according to “Teenage Roadhogs” (Alpha Books, 1997, $12.95), result from limited experience: “Generally, drivers discover by trial and error the aspects of driving that the manuals don’t teach and the driving exams don’t test.”
In Jamie Grant’s case, the lessons began early. If she was not churning clouds of dust in orange groves alongside her father, she was puttering down clay back roads.
Once she got her learner’s permit, her mother encouraged her to drive every possible minute. As Lynn Grant saw it, the more practice her daughter got, the safer she would be.
Early on, parking bedeviled Jamie, who had trouble shoe-horning the family van into cubbyhole-small parking spaces.
When Jamie wasn’t practicing, she was watching her mother drive, observing the slow rolls through stop signs, watching her mother’s self-diagnosed lead-foot.
As Smith of the National Safety Council sees it, teens “become the kind of drivers their parents are.”
When Jamie pointed out her mother’s infractions, Grant would concede guilt and warn Jamie against following her example.
“It’s not the state’s responsibility to teach them how to drive or teach them responsibility,” Lynn Grant said. “It’s up to us.”
INSURING A YOUNG DRIVER? SHOP AROUND
As a group, teenagers are assessed the highest car insurance rates, but parents who know how to shop around can save money.
“There are hundreds of companies offering insurance for young drivers. Different companies offer different discounts,” said David Smolensky, a spokesman for the National Association of Independent Insurers in Des Plaines.
Adding a teenage driver to a policy can increase rates from 50 to 200 percent. Factors such as age and what, where and how often the teen drives affect the cost, insurance agents say.
Many insurance companies knock 5 to 30 percent off premium rates for teens with a B average or better and teens who have successfully completed driver’s education or defensive driving courses.
Here are some ways you might find premium discounts:
– Multi-car. Your family has more than one vehicle insured with the same company.
– Homeowner-car. Your family has automobile and homeowner’s insurance with the same company.
– Safety features. Your car has anti-lock brakes, air bags and anti-theft devices.
– Occasional-driver rating. Parents might be able to add their teenage to their policy if the child will not have his own vehicle, is in college without a vehicle or the household has more drivers than vehicles. That could substantially reduce your premiums.
– Increase deductibles. That can cut your teenager’s premium.
– Scrutinize coverages. If you have a medical insurance plan or an auto club membership, you may wish to skip policy options that pay medical benefits if your teen is hurt in an accident or that defray the cost of towing service. If your child will be driving an older car, you can consider going without collision coverage if the insurance would cost more than the value of the vehicle.
RULES OF ROAD BEGIN AT HOME
– Find as much information about driving as possible for your teenager. Go to the library for driving books. Discuss traffic rules, signs, etc., which als refreshes your memory. Talk about the causes and results of collisions when you see accidents.
– Maintain control over your teen’s driving. Let your child know that he or she will not drive if traffic laws or household rules are not followed or if grades drop.
– Draw up a contract that lists driving rules, your teen’s responsibilities (gas, maintenance, etc.) and consequences should any regulation be broken. Rules might include curfews, number of passengers allowed and restrictions on where the teen can drive.
– Have your teenager tell you of his driving plans verbally or by posting it prominently. Have him or her call if there will be a change in plans or if there is a delay.
– Inform your teenager’s friends of the family driving rules.
– Grant driving privileges in increments. Allow novice drivers to drive to school and back or restrict driving to daytime, then extend more privileges as the teenager demonstrates competence.
