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Imagine being the origin of safe driving culture in your family, which will be quoted from generation to generation. Especially if you’re able to let every driver in your brood understand that every drive or journey isn’t just a destination but the very essence of the ride, ensuring safety from A to B.
From empowering your young drivers with knowledge to embracing technology so all of you are safer on the road, it’s best that you tap into some strategies so you can transfer your discoveries of awareness and preparedness to your next protegees.
Installing A Safe Driving Lifestyle and Culture
- Leading by Example
It’s not just about what you believe is safer, but how to tell young drivers that distracted driving is dangerous and how you can teach a driving lifestyle that prioritizes safety for everyone.
Well, since seeing is believing, you need to be a role model for safe driving behaviors first by following traffic laws and complying with every edict of proper driving. When you’ve proven to be law-abiding yourself, that’s only when you can preach and teach credibly, especially to today’s generation of drivers.
- Starting Early
While their memory is still sharp and still on top of their reflexes, it’s best to start early in educating young drivers, especially about how crucial it is that they learn safe driving practices.
At an early age, you need to emphasize the responsibilities they carry every time they’re behind the wheel, like:
- Vehicle Maintenance
- Following traffic laws (including wearing of seatbelts)
- Avoiding distractions
- Yielding Right of Way
- Using Signals
- Keeping a safe distance
- Sharing the road
- Adapting to weather, road, and traffic conditions
- Monitoring speed
- Staying sober
It’s also proper for these young drivers, especially if you’re around Indiana, to have contacts like a car accident lawyer based in Evansville. They need an expert whom they can consult or call in cases of unavoidable road incidents around the most populous city in Southern Indiana.
Practicing and Encouraging Open Communication
Remember that kids often don’t talk when they have an inkling that you’re going to get angry. That’s one mistake you need to avoid, so always encourage open communication about your student’s driving experiences, concerns, and potential risks within the family.
Fostering this reasonable, understanding, supportive, and communication-free environment will help you discuss and address safety issues timely and directly.
- Embracing Safety by Technology
You can encourage each member to adapt and use technology tools such as smartphone apps or some vehicle safety features to monitor their driving behavior. There’s even an application that can help set limits on speed or distractions, and they could also receive alerts for unsafe driving habits, like no seatbelt and overspeeding warning devices.
Additionally, it’s also safer for all of you to use phone mounts for hands-free and safer communication and navigation while driving.
- Planning is as Important as Arriving
You can always adopt the importance of planning ahead, even on all your drives. Just teach everyone in the family the weight of planning routes and checking weather, road, and traffic conditions along the way and at your destination.
Teaching them also that planning includes ensuring that vehicles are properly maintained and checking for oils, water, batteries, and other protocols contributes to their safety, minimizing the risk of accidents or car breakdowns.
- Provide Ongoing Education
Staying informed about updates in road safety, news, regulations, advances in vehicle safety tech, and emerging risks on the road will help you translate and talk to your family about them regularly. Your constant updates will help establish your concern and how you value their safety and deliver the message that they, too, should keep themselves safe on roadways.
This ongoing education can help establish a thought and habit of taking good care while at the wheel and a safe driving culture in your family.
- Rewarding Responsible Behavior
Always recognize and reward family members, especially the young ones, who can consistently demonstrate safe driving habits.
When you reinforce their positive driving behaviors with heartfelt encouragement and inspire them to continue with all the driving protocols, you’re sure to create a safe driving culture sooner than expected.
