In short …

• Statistically, the risk of being in an accident is very high for beginner drivers, especially when they have friends in the car and at night.
• There are some biological factors behind this that parents & teens need to be aware of these to put some safeguards in place.
• We need to have many conversations with our teens about how cars can be lethal weapons  – cars and phones/drugs/alcohol/friends/speeding and distraction don’t mix well.
• This article offers tips for helping your teens become more competent, safer drivers.

The death of any child is horrendous for parents. Multiple deaths, especially of family members or friends, is unimaginable.

As a high school teacher and former counsellor, and sadly as a funeral celebrant I have had several close experiences of the tragedy of young lives lost in car accidents. My own sons have lost good friends in car crashes. Given that I was teaching over 45 years ago, we need to recognise that teens and cars has been a  huge area of concern for a very long time.

In 2024 in Australia there have been several tragic car crashes that have ended the lives of multiple teens. Some of the victims have been as young as 12 and 13. Often, the teens killed are members of the same family or close friends so the impact is wide. Not one of these teen drivers would have ever wanted to hurt or cause the death of someone else but sadly it happens.

There has been much conversation on West Australian radio this past week about changing the rules for probationary licence holders – or P platers. I was intrigued to understand that in every state there are different rules for beginning drivers. Western Australia did not have any rules around teenagers driving with other under 21-year-olds in their car. Thanks to the efforts of Samantha Saffioti in honour of her son Tom, the WA state government has introduced new rules called Tom’s Law that bans red P plate holders from carrying more than one passenger in their first six months of driving.

“Statistics and recent tragedies on our roads show that novice drivers are at high risk of crashes and of being distracted,” Premier Roger Cooke told ABC News.

It is definitely a move in the right direction and is possibly long overdue.

I heard one listener call in to talkback radio to express concern that their teenage son, who was a rule follower, could possibly be unfairly compromised by the new rule.

Given what we know about the neuroscience of the teenage brain, especially for boys, even rule followers can make poor choices when in a car with friends.

The impulse-inhibiting neurochemical, GABA (Gamma aminobutyric acid) is turned off during the teen years which increases risk taking and poor choices.

Simply having friends close by either inside a car or out, can increase the chances of poor choices being made.

No matter how well a young lad has been raised, no matter how many conversations parents have around making good choices, the adolescent window (12-25) – thanks to the remodelling of the teenage brain – means they lack the cognitive capacity to always make good decisions. Heck, there are adults who make poor decisions while driving cars and their prefrontal lobe should be complete.

I had a chat with Nadia Mitsopoulos on ABC Radio in Perth about some other concerns that many parents may not be aware of around driving. You can hear that conversation here.

Here are some of the things I think it might help to know:

Boys are biologically wired to automatically try to impress a potential mate.

That means if there are girls in the car (or anyone they might like), this can be an added concern even if they are not in a relationship with that person. Evolutionary biology has a lot to answer for on that front, as part of the key development during adolescence is finding a mate to breed with!

Night time is a particularly challenging time for teens.

Given that their executive brain is immature and developing, research shows that at night the capacity to access the prefrontal lobe is greatly diminished – whether they are in their bedroom or in a car. Night-time driving is so much more dangerous than daytime driving for teenagers with or without companions. The worst behaviour that happens in the digital landscape, tends to happen at night for the same reason.

Your horror stories about driving are unlikely to make a difference.

Many well-intentioned adults believe that hearing the true stories about the dangers of driving as teenagers from those who have lost loved ones will reduce the number of future lives lost. Sadly, that is unlikely to make a significant difference. Why?

Teens are wired differently and they often view things through a very different lens.

They tend to exaggerate the positives out of a possible experience and diminish or completely ignore any negative consequences.

Many of them, especially boys, believe they are bullet-proof and that it will never happen to them. A tragic story may move them in the moment, however in the car it no longer has any impact.

Your teens may need support to make a Plan B.

Many of these tragic accidents that see the loss of multiple beautiful lives involve the influence of alcohol and drugs. Given that teens are more prone to making poorer choices than mature adults (due to them having less myelin in their brain), there needs to be a stronger message for all teens to avoid getting into cars with anyone who is under the influence of alcohol or other substances.

Encourage them to walk together, or to seek some other safer way of getting home – ride shares have been a help for many families of teens. I think it’s incredibly important for parents of older teens, who are going to parties and socialising, to tell them to call (no matter what time) if they need a ride home. This has to be without any judgements, without any lectures and simply with the intention to get all our teens home safe.

Probationary drivers are best not to drive high-powered cars.

Some of the most serious accidents involve speed in high-powered cars. As parents work with their teens to build their driving skill levels, this is a message we need to reaffirm.

Phones and cars are a dangerous mix

Another concern that has come up in my work with exploring how to keep our teens safer as they learn to drive competently is the usage of phones in cars. This is obviously an issue across society these days… not just for teens who are driving. I worked with one family who sadly had called their teen to check where they were, and the distraction of that call was a contributing factor to an accident that followed.

There are huge fines in some states for mobile phone use in cars. Generally, phones are not allowed to be used in cars where they might distract the driver. Where I live, the law currently says they can be used as a driver’s aid only but in that case, they need to be in a fixed holder in the vehicle.

All phones in cars need to be hidden if not in a holder. Teens are distracted by other people’s phones as well. Encourage them to maybe put their phone in the boot or otherwise out of reach, so impulses cannot kick in!

 

A cautionary tale from my own adolescence

As I was listening to these conversations in the media this week, I remembered my own experience as a beginning driver. As farm kids, we often had to shift vehicles and learn to drive much earlier than other kids. When I got my licence, the assessor told my dad I was one of the most competent young drivers he had ever tested.

The year before I got my license, I was messing around with a couple of farm boys racing around paddocks with old, unlicensed cars. It was risky, it was fun and we were not going that fast. During one of the races, the car I was driving clipped the edge of a rock in the paddock, and the vehicle flipped over. It landed against some she-oak trees and I was thrown out onto the ground. Fortunately, I was able to get up quite quickly, because the car was rolling back towards me. Unfortunately, I was not able to get completely out of the way and the car chassis landed on my right lower leg. The boys who were with me lifted the car up enough for me to get my leg out. Within minutes my foot had swollen up so much it had split my basketball shoes and I was in a significant amount of pain. The boys helped me back to the main house on the farm, and I had to call my dad to come and collect me and he took me to the emergency department.

I had not fractured any bones but I had torn ligaments very seriously and I was in a plaster cast for six weeks, and unable to play my beloved basketball for 18 months. I had a long time to think about the poor choice I had made.

So, you would think I would become a very sensible driver as a consequence of my accident, right?

The following year, as we were nearing end of year 12 exams, I was driving one of my friends back to her place after studying all day. The bitumen road I was on had a really long straight stretch and, out of nowhere, I decided to see how fast my dad’s car would go! I remember it vibrating before I slowed down. Even though I was an academically capable school leader and normally very responsible girl, with no other teens in the car­ to influence me, and no phone to distract me I still made an impulsive poor choice that could have cost me my life that day.

I had not learnt the lesson from my previous accident to see that cars are really lethal weapons for young people who are cognitively immature.

In many ways, preparing our teens to be safe, competent drivers is a little like preparing them to be respectful, sexual partners as they mature through the teen years. You don’t just have one conversation. You need to have many conversations.

A key thing that really helps build awareness is for parents to draw their kids’ attention to any form of incompetent or dangerous driving. When people change lanes without indicating, drive erratically because they’re on their phons, where you notice them running red lights, exceeding the speed limit, or when you see other misdemeanours that could end badly, please draw your teen’s attention to it. Over time it helps the brain become better at predicting potential danger while on the road.

How parents can help teens become competent, safe drivers.

• Have many conversations about how cars can be lethal weapons.
• Speed limits matter and modelling respect for speed limits is important.
• Have phone mounts in all cars so there is no need to be distracted at for them, holding them or using them while driving.
• Avoid teens having access to high-powered cars.
• Explore alternative options for teens attending social events rather than getting a lift home with other teens.
• Volunteer to be the parent who collects multiple teens – at any hour of the day or night.
• Affirm the importance of patience when behind the wheel – many poor choices are made from poor regulation due to impatience.
• Ensure your teen does all of their required hours of supervised driving, especially night driving.
• Explain to your teen about why there are additional challenges with night driving versus day driving.
• If you can, get them to do an advanced driving course.
• Remind your teen about the phrase “no matter what”. That’s so they know they can call you when anything bad happens to them or their friends, and you will come, and you have their back, no matter what.
• As often as you can, when your teen leaves the house, ensure those last words are ones you would be happy to have said, if something awful were to happen.
• Ensure your teen understands and respects the rules around being a probationary driver (P1 and P2) .

These steps have the potential to save lives, however we must keep in mind that adolescents on the journey to adulthood, are not mature adults and they will still make impulsive poor choices from time to time.

No teen ever wants to hurt someone they care about and yet sometimes a poor choice can do exactly that.

 

Image credit: © By lentolo /Depositphotos.com