New teen drivers face excitement, risks

This month, thousands of high school students will know the excitement and responsibility of driving to school.

But with that responsibility comes certain dangers on the roads, where there have been nearly 1,000 fatal crashes involving teen drivers in the state in six years.

South Florence High School Principal Neal Vincent said about 500 student parking decals have been issued this year. While there haven’t been any major traffic crashes on or near school grounds, school faculty and staff do all they can to make sure it stays that way.

“Of course every now and then, you’ll have an accident, but nothing significant. You have your fender-benders, but that’s about all,” he said. “What we try to do is educate them. We tell them to slow down (and) wear your seat belts.”

The best and most important thing for teen drivers is for their parents to a talk with them about their driving habits long before they make it to school grounds, said Mark Hanna, an Allstate Insurance exclusive agent in Florence.

“It’s not a rite of passage, it’s really a privilege, and its important for parents to talk with them about the responsibility that is required to get behind the wheel,” he said. “From what we’ve studied, we do know that teens do listen to their parents when it comes to driving and driving safety.”

It may boil down to fact that some teens aren’t ready to drive, Hanna said. Because there are many of factors that go into determining if someone is ready to get behind the wheel, parents should assess a child’s maturity.

“Do they pay attention to the things that are asked of them? Are they ready mentally to handle the responsibility of driving the vehicle?” he said are some of the questions parents should ask before allowing their teens to drive.

Ideally, a teen driver should be an independent thinker who isn’t easily influenced by peers and should be able to make important choices on his or her own.

But even with the sternest of advice, crashes still happen, especially during the school commute, according to Allstate Insurance’s “Chronic — A Report on the State of Teen Driving.”

Driving to and from school carries a high crash risk because more teens are driving during these times and are likely to have other teens in the car, according to the report. This is especially the case after school when drivers may be preoccupied with getting to social or extracurricular activities on time.

Florence resident Brenda Witoshynsky said she considered her 15-year-old son’s attitude and personality for about a year before she decided to buy him a car and allow him to drive to school.

Witoshynsky said her son, Tyler, a student a West Florence High School, received the car primarily to aid in his after-school job search.

“He’s a pretty good driver. He’s all the time telling me how to drive,” she said. “He’s like, ‘Put you seat belt on Ma.’”

Before getting behind the wheel, the mother and son had a sit-down conversation about what would be allowed and what wouldn’t.

After making it to school and back successfully so far, Tyler said he and his mother have discussed giving his friends in the neighborhood rides to school.

Statistics show that fatal crashes involving 16-year-old drivers are much more likely to occur when other teenagers are in the car, according to Allstate data.

And the risk of a fatal crashes increases in proportion to the number of teenage passengers.

But Tyler said, “It not really much of a difference. I’ve become atuned to driving so much that I can stay focused, it doesn’t matter who is in the car.”

While teen drivers face many dangers on the roads, Witoshynsky said, the issue really comes down to trust.

“I say just trust them. Until he gives me a reason not to, he’ll be driving,” she said, giving her son a warning glance. “If he doesn’t, I’ve always got a pocket for the keys.”