How Teens Can Become Safer Drivers (NAPSA)—If you want to pinpoint the reason many young teens have serious crashes, it can be summed up easily—inexperlence. Whether they are on their way to a party, the mall or a friend’s house, teens may find themselves in driving situations they aren’t equipped to handle yet. paling Teenagers can become safer drivers, say officials at GEICO, by developing more experience and avoiding certain driving situations until they are better prepared to handle them. Here are somespecifics: Develop the right attitude about driving. Many teen auto accidents are a result of attitude and maturity. Make a commit- ment to yourself to practice a responsible attitude about dri- ving. Youre controlling over 3,000 pounds of fast-moving metal, and you oweit to yourself, your pas- sengers and other drivers to drive responsibly. Get as much supervised practice driving as possible. Your parents should take an active role in your practice driving. Make a firm schedule with them andstick to it. And keep it up until you take your test to get a license. ALWAYSwear your safety belt. Get into the habit of wearing your safety belt whenever you drive or ride—no exceptions. Underage drinking and drug use is illegal. Even if you’ve consumed only one drink or smoked one joint, there is a chemical effect on your brain that can impair judgment and reaction time. Driving under the influence of alcohol, marijuana or other illegal drugs can cost you your license—or your life. Visit www.Freevibe.com for more facts GEICO. Pesaran TS) starters. Fast-moving, high vol- umesof traffic can make you feel uncomfortable, so avoid them until you can get enough super- vised driving experience. Then you can gradually introduce more difficult driving situations, like highway driving, merging off ramps anddrivingincities. e Train for poor weather conditions. Even when you begin to feel confident driving on dry pavement, it’s best to avoid driving in bad weather conditions unsupervised. Keep it simple at first, and get as much supervised practice driving in poor weather as you can before trying it on your own. Cell phones are for emergency use only on the road. One of the worst habits anyone can get into is talking on cell phone while driving. Keep a cell phone with you in the car for emergency situations only. If you Your risk of a fatal crash have to use a cell phone, pull safely over to the side of the road. e Drive a safe vehicle.If you are thinking of getting your own car, look for one with high safety passenger. When you’re a new and sport utility vehicles. Check on drug use. Limit your passengers. increases with every additional driver, it’s best to limit your numberof passengers. Young drivers shouldalso: Limit your night driving. ratings. Avoid small cars, trucks out federal statistics and consumer report literature to help to evaluate the safety rating of a car or truck. The Insurance Institute Your risk of a fatal crash is three for Highway Safety (the people better to avoid nighttime driving until you’re comfortable driving able vehicle safety test results and advisories. Just go to www.highwaysafety.org. More information from GEICO times higher at night than in the day for every mile driven. It is during the day. Keep it slow and safe for who do crash tests) offers valu- is at www.geico.com/teendriving.
