Distracted Teens Make for Bad Drivers: Online Course Helps Students Master the Rules...

Distracted Teens Make for Bad Drivers: Online Course Helps Students Master the
Rules of the Road

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- As National Teen Driver Safety
Week comes to a close, the message to teens remains: "ride like a friend",
don't distract your fellow teen driver.
The most common distractions cited by DriversEd.com students are talking,
yelling, arguing, and goofing off. DriversEd.com (http://driversed.com/)
teaches teens to become competent and confident licensed drivers. The
interactive online course allows teens to take their drivers ed at their own
pace on their own schedule.
"Teens tend to take more risks while driving partly due to overconfidence
in their driving abilities," says DriversEd.com co-founder Gary Tsifrin. "Yet
most new drivers remain unaware of the heightened risk caused by having
teenage passengers."
Studies show that teen drivers carrying one teenage passenger have twice
the risk of a fatal crash as teens driving alone. The risk jumps five times
higher for teens carrying two or more teenagers. According to the Traffic
Injury Research Foundation, two-thirds of passenger deaths among 13- to
19-year-olds occur when another teen is driving.
Parental involvement is essential -- there are some simple things that
parents can do to help their teen stay safe when driving with other teenage
drivers:
-- Know where your teen is going and how he or she is getting there
-- Don't let your teen ride with a driver with less than a year's
experience
-- Make it clear that teen drivers should not use their cell phones in the
car
-- Talk to the teen driver before your teenager leaves with him or her
-- Make sure you can reach the teen driver's parents before your teen
takes off

Focusing exclusively on driver safety education, DriversEd.com is the only
online drivers ed course accredited by the Road Safety Educators Association,
the Driving School Association of the Americas, the International Association
for Driver Education, as well as Departments of Motor Vehicles (DMV), Public
Safety (DPS) and Education (DOE).
"We were the first to bring the drivers education course online and we're
committed to expanding the availability of drivers education to students
everywhere, in cities and rural areas alike. The more choice and availability
of education the better for everyone sharing America's roads and highways
because we want teens to complete drivers ed and not simply skip it by waiting
for their 18th birthday," says Tsifrin.
SOURCE DriversEd.com

Barbara Franzoia Consults, +1-415-291-0243, barbara@franzoia.com, for
DriversEd.com