Photo by Valerie Kaarna on Unsplash
With August, we're approaching the back-to-school season. Our family is preparing to send our daughter off to her freshman year of college, and it's an emotional time. For many parents, sending their children off to college is a bittersweet moment. It's also a scary moment. While we're excited for our daughter to start this new chapter in her life, we also worry about all of the dangers that come with being on your own for the first time.
While we trust our daughter's judgment, we worry about her being around so many other new, haphazard "I'll live forever" drivers. We just want to make sure she has the tools she needs to do well. With this new step for our daughter in mind, Aurora AutoPros would like to offer some driving tips to help keep your young driver safe this school year:
Obey the speed limit: This one is pretty straightforward. Speeding is one of the leading causes of accidents, especially for inexperienced drivers. A ticket raises your insurance rates, and can lead to losing the privilege to drive– but most essentially, speed can kill. Normalize your teenager holding the speed limit as their absolute limit.
Drive defensively: This means being aware of your surroundings and anticipating what other drivers might do. It also means not being afraid to speak up if you feel like someone is driving dangerously. If your young driver shows any signs of not be aware of spatial issues, book them in now for a Defensive Driver course. It will lower you insurance rate for them and potentially save lives.
Hands-Free Driving, always: Communication is vital. Our kids have grown up with messaging and texting all their young lives. But most states now have Hands-Free laws to keep people safe. And texting while driving is the exact kind of small, banal item that winds up destroying a car, or several lives. That’s why it’s important to let you young driver know that nothing is more important than the burden of a several-ton metal cage rolling down the road towards other metal cages.
Keep your car in good condition: This means making sure your tires are properly inflated, your brakes are in good working order, and you have enough windshield wiper fluid. Taking care of small maintenance issues can help prevent larger problems down the road. Whether away at school or back home for a visit, your young driver should keep up with their scheduled maintenance on their car, to prevent the kind of neglectful damage that leads to not having a car to drive when you need one.
We hope these tips will help keep your young driver safe on the roads this school. If you need maintenance on your vehicle, please schedule an appointment with Aurora AutoPros as soon as possible. We look forward to seeing you soon.