Georgia Injury Law Blog
Even after a teenage driver has acquired a license, his or her driving skills may continue to be below that of older drivers.A recent study put a number of teenage motorists who had acquired a full license through a simulated driving test, and found that many of the teen drivers crashed in the task.
The teenagers went through the 35-minute driving assessment which included replications of the most common accident scenarios.Approximately four out of every 10 newly licensed drivers crashed in the test, and according to researchers, this suggests that they lacked the critical driving skills that they needed to stay safe while driving in a real-world environment.Data also showed that approximately 29% of the adult drivers crashed in the test, while among teen drivers, the crash rate was more than 49%.
This suggests that even after they obtain a full license, most teen motorists lack the critical driving abilities required to stay safe on the roads. Teenagers who had just obtained a license, the researchers found, were good at the basics, but lacked the ability to identify accident cues in their environment, and react immediately to such hazards. That placed them and their passengers at a high risk of being involved in a motor vehicle collision.
No one would deny that driving gets better with experience… to a point.Teenage drivers require many more months of experience before they become skilled and proficient adult drivers. In addition, parents have a big role to play during this transition period. If you’re the parent of a teenage child who has recently obtained his or her license, don’t simply assume that your child can now drive safely. There are far too many risks on the roadways, including drunk drivers, distracted drivers, construction, and other accident risks that your teenage child may not be in any position to deal with.
Supervised driving must continue for a while after a teenager gets a full license, and such driving must involve advice and best practice guidance from parents.Graduated license programs, such as the one in Georgia (TADRA), also help to give new drivers time to improve their skills before adding potential distractions to the mix.