SAN ANTONIO – Prom season is here, and officials at USAA are reminding parents about the importance of safe driving.
According to USAA, vehicle crashes involving a teen driver increased by nearly 30% beginning in April. Andrew Femath, a spokesperson for USAA, said this is due to teenagers being more distracted and less experienced on the roadways.
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“Anything that takes your eyes off the road, your hands off the wheel, it’s a distraction to the point where it can become a fatal distraction,” Femath said.
Femath said there are several things parents and teens can do to stay safe on the roadways:
- Put away distractions
- Keep cellphones down
- Have someone else in the car play DJ
- Take care of any personal grooming (fixing hair/makeup) before getting behind the wheel
- Put your destination in your GPS on your phone before driving
- Drive route ahead of time
- “What this does is it builds familiarity. It builds confidence. Use this as an opportunity to point out some landmarks so that they know where they’re going, and they’re not staring at their phone for the directions,” said Femath.
- Make sure vehicle is safe
- Check tire tread and inflation to make sure they are at safe levels
- Make sure blinkers and windshield wipers are working properly
“It just requires a little bit of effort beforehand so that we can make sure that we’re putting our young drivers in the safest vehicle possible,” Femath said.
Another way parents can help is to be a good example for their kids, regardless of age.
If adults are on their phones, distracted, or driving unsafely, kids could pick up those bad driving habits.
Getting to and from prom safely is important, but so is being at prom. Northside ISD is making sure students are safe when they are celebrating prom.
“Our schools are pretty consistent around the measures they take to ensure a safe prom event. Our schools monitor attendance at the event and ensure that those in attendance are in ‘good standing,’ with respect to the Student Code of Conduct,” said an NISD representative in an email to KSAT. “Our prom events are chaperoned and monitored by school staff as well as NISD Police. And, through multiple announcements at school, students are kept informed of behavioral expectations for events such as prom.”
If you or your teen are heading to prom, send us your pics! You can do so on KSAT Connect.
