Tag Archives: dvd

How can I prepare my child, a few years before driver’s ed?

Posted on by kelly1963

“… already worrying about it.”

Question: Dear Mike: We’re still a few years away from driver’s ed. but I’m already worrying about it. Is there anything I can do now to prepare?

-Becky of Virginia, MN

Answer: Dear Becky, Absolutely! I wish more parents were thinking ahead and taking this really seriously, because what you do now can make a difference. The last lesson of our “Roadworthy” DVD is called Start Early & Never Stop, and it explains quite a few easy ways that you can start preparing your younger children long before they’re ready to get a learner’s permit. For example, one of my pet peeves as an instructor is 16 year old kids who don’t know the names of the streets near their house. That’s a very basic thing that can create a lot of confusion in a car, but it’s very simple for you as a parent to teach now.
-Mike Pehl

 

Find more questions and answers like this on our “Ask Mike” page

When should my kid start learning how to drive?

Posted on by Safe Driver

“Some parents are telling me to start early…”

Q: Dear Mike: I’m wondering when my kid should start learning to drive. Some parents are telling me to start early; others are saying to wait. What’s your opinion?
- Pat (Woodbury, MN)

A: Dear Pat: Inexperience is the number one reason teenagers die in car crashes. Because of that, my personal opinion is that you want to have as much time as possible to guide your teen while they’re learning to drive. To me, the best plan is to start them learning as soon as legally possible. While they have their learner’s permit, follow the sequence of lessons that we describe in our “Roadworthy” DVD. That will lay a good foundation of practice, and you’ll be able to judge how well their skills are developing. When you know they’re ready, they should be the ones driving anytime you’re in the car together, so they can get as much experience as possible while you’re there to catch the mistakes. And remember, just because they’ve had their learner’s permit a certain amount of time does NOT mean that they get their license! Lesson 11 of “Roadworthy” explains what I did with my own three kids; it’s the best way I know to feel secure when your teen starts driving without you.  -Mike Pehl

Find more questions and answers like this on our “Ask Mike” page

Drive Safe’s “Roadworthy” DVD gets publicity from St. Paul’s “Pioneer Press”

Posted on by Jayne Ubl

Old News or not so Old News?

As long as teen auto accidents are preventable, our news is not by any means old news. A while back our mission was publicized by the Pioneer Press of St. Paul Minnesota. We’re compelled to share the the original Pioneer Press article by Mila Koumpilova: 

One of Jayne Ubl’s teenage sons rolled over on a sharp dirt-road turn. Barely six weeks later, the other slammed his car into a vehicle he was tailgating.

That was some years back, and Ubl’s reaction was to ask each boy, luckily unharmed, “What were you thinking?”

But more recently, Ubl’s take on the twin mishaps has changed profoundly. She and another Twin Cities mom teamed up with a veteran driving instructor to create a DVD geared toward fellow parents of fledgling drivers.

The premise: Parents often shy away from talking about careful driving with their kids, and that might well be one key reason driving-while-a-teen remains such a perilous undertaking.

The DVD, “Roadworthy: A Parent’s Guide to Teaching Teens to Drive,” aims to inspire parents to be more hands-on.

“As a parent, I had no idea I was supposed to teach them something,” said Ubl, of Champlin. “I thought I was supposed to ride with them and try not to freak out.”

It all started three years ago when Kelly Cusick, a video editor from Woodbury and mother of four, found herself in a two-hour session for parents — a mandatory piece of driving instructor Mike Pehl’s lessons. Cusick’s oldest son was gearing up to get his license.

Some parents grumble about the session, but to Cusick, it was eye-opening. ”I get them for 30 hours,” Pehl told the parents. “You get them for life.” So Cusick pitched the idea of doing a DVD to Pehl, who was instantly sold.

A former insurance company accident investigator, Pehl has countless gruesome cautionary tales about driver inexperience — and a passion for getting parents engaged.

His own children had to go a month without making any mistake on the road before they could apply for a license. So well did Pehl drive the point home that on his granddaughter’s first day of school, the girl sat behind the bus driver and, each time she caught his eye in the rearview mirror, she advised, “Get your eyes back on the road.”

With Ubl, a video producer, on board, the trio set out to counter a slew of parent-of-teen-driver misconceptions.

Some parents cancel driving practice in slippery conditions or shirk the fast pace of the freeway, leaving kids short on crucial experience. Others are a bit too eager to let their teens shuttle themselves to hockey practice or piano lessons.

“Parents don’t understand how important their role is,” Cusick said. “The bulk of the responsibility lies with them.”

Teens consistently report their parents’ driving advice and pointers carry major weight, said Ann Kulenkamp, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Safety Council. Yet, she said, “parents sometimes don’t realize the powerful role they play in influencing what happens with their teens behind the wheel.”

According to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, teens represented just over 6 percent of licensed drivers in the state in 2009, but they accounted for more than 12 percent of crashes.

To Pehl, parents alone have the power to change stubborn teen driver statistics.

The “Roadworthy” DVD features Pehl dispensing advice on anything from adjusting side mirrors to hitting the freeway. (To start, go early on a Saturday or Sunday, he says.)

Cusick and a younger son dramatize common situations such as arguing over who gets to back the car out of the garage on the first day of driving practice. (It had better be mom, Pehl will tell you.)

Pehl shares his rule of thumb: Only when parents feel comfortable kicking back with a coffee and a newspaper in the passenger seat might their kids be ready to go for their licenses.

Cusick (who is married to Kevin Cusick, a deputy sports editor at the Pioneer Press) offers to refund the $20 the DVD costs to any buyer who doesn’t find it helpful: “We don’t believe it’s possible for anybody for watch this without learning something.”

To learn more or buy the “Roadworthy” DVD, go online to www.drivesaferidesafe.com

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Children’s Hospital Research On Teen Auto Accidents

Posted on by kelly1963

Research Study Analyzes Teen Car Crashes

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is a frequent co-sponsor of research about many childhood safety issues. Since teen drivers are involved in fatal crashes at four times the rate of adults, driving safety is one topic of particular concern for their researchers.

In mid-April they released the findings from a study of 800 car crashes which all involved at least one teenage driver. The study found that in those 800 crashes, seventy-five percent were caused by a critical teen driving error. Saying it this way is perhaps not scientific, but it is startling: “600 crashes could have been prevented if those teens had better-established driving skills.”

In fact, just three common errors were responsible for nearly half of the serious crashes.

  • 21% happened because of lack of scanning.
  • 21% happened because of excessive speed for road conditions.
  • 20% happened because of distraction.
The purpose of research in this arena is of course, to discover opportunities to keep teen drivers safer and prevent unnecessary tragedies. It seems clear that the findings from this study support our message about the power of parents for teens learning to drive.

Lack of scanning

The research study authors note that scanning is a higher-level skill which needs time to develop. That correlates precisely with Mike Pehl’s insistence that teens need as much practice time as possible with their parent in the passenger seat. In our “Roadworthy” DVD, Mike teaches how to help your teen understand the importance of scanning. His explanations about intersections, the shoulder area of roads, and how to recognize the level of risk from approaching vehicles, are critically important. A teenager who has gotten plenty of practice time with a parent who knows how to explain those hazards, will be a driver who has the established habit of scanning properly. “Experience, experience, experience,” as Mike says, is the key.

Excessive Speed for Road Conditions

This error was not simply a case of a lot of teenagers pretending to be at the Daytona 500. Driving too fast to successfully navigate a curve, or too fast to respond to others, are the kinds of speed-related errors cited in the study. Once again, these fall into the category of mistakes that are much less likely to be made by a teenager who has had enough practice time in the wide variety of locations & situations recommended by Mike. Taking a curve too fast is a mistake that parents can notice when riding with their learner’s-permit driver, and that gives them the chance to help their teen correct their perception of what is safe, before it becomes a potentially fatal error. Teen drivers do not have an established “feel” for how-fast-is-too-fast when they are just starting to drive, so the coaching from their parents in that early stage is very important. As Mike says, “teach the good habits now.” Learning the hard way is not a good plan.

Distraction

Distracted driving is a hot topic right now, and this research study did conclude that being distracted by something inside (or outside!) of the vehicle, was one of the three primary causes for the 800 crashes that were studied. It is certainly a significant risk, but it’s interesting to notice the proportion of the statistics; all three errors are almost equally weighted in the study. Public perception right now is much more focussed on distracted driving than the other two fundamental errors, however, and there can be danger in concentrating so much on one issue that you ignore others. Mike Pehl’s advice related to phones is to shut them off when you’re in the car, but beyond that he has a much broader understanding of distractions; we all have them. We listen to the radio, we change the heat controls to defrost, we talk to our children; all of those are distractions and most of them are not going away whether we are adult drivers or novice drivers. Keeping your attention on driving when you are behind the wheel, is a habit that can be nurtured in young drivers when their parents are observing from the passenger seat. And the ability to monitor distractions both inside and outside of the vehicle, while still maintaining control of the car in a safe manner, is again a mature skill that grows from adequate experience. Mike’s advice to let your teenager drive as much as possible “while you’re there to catch the mistakes” offers the opportunity to reduce crash rates from this causal factor as well as the others cited in this research.

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