Driving Safety Tips for Teens

  • By: The DIG for Kids
  • Time to read: 3 min.
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Teens are often really keen to learn to drive, so that they can gain their own independence and no longer have to rely on mum and dad to drive them everywhere any more. But while learning to drive can open up a world of positive opportunities, it can also pose some potential dangers, too. If you’re a teen who’s recently learnt to drive, or a parent of a new teen driver, then here are some driving safety tips that you may find useful.

Driving Confidence

Passing your driving test and realising that you’re finally able to take to the roads on your own is a great feeling. But although your driving skills may have reached a good standard, your driving confidence may still be in need of further growth. It’s quite a jump to go from learning to drive and having an instructor by your side to being out there on your own.

So if you don’t feel massively confident quite yet, don’t worry. It should develop as you gain more and more experience with driving. Many instructors offer booster courses for new drivers, covering circumstances such as motorway driving, and these can be very useful to do.

Driving With Friends

Teens that can drive are often favoured by friends that can’t, but don’t be pressured into driving all your non-driving friends around.

Sometimes new teen drivers can feel pressurised into driving faster or behaving stupidly in their car, as they show off to their friends, but this is always a bad idea and should be avoided. Don’t be afraid to say no if you aren’t ready to take your friends as passengers just yet, and don’t feel like you’ve got to act ‘cool’ now that you drive.

Driving Safely

Driving is a very useful way of getting from A to B, but the roads can be dangerous places. All drivers, teens included, need to keep their wits about them to ensure they always drive safely. Stay aware of what other drivers on the road are doing at all times, as often their bad driving can cause accidents for you.

It’s easy to forget the contents of The Highway Code as soon as you can drive, but keep a copy handy in the car and refer to it when you need to.

Car Problems

Anyone with a car can tell you that they don’t always behave in the way that you’d expect or like them to! Problems occur when you least expect them and can happen when you’re out and about away from home. For this reason, it’s a good idea to get to grips with some basic car maintenance issues, so that you know what to do if your car breaks down when you’re on the road. This goes for both girls and boys – changing a tyre can be a very useful skill to have!

It’s also recommended that you have insurance breakdown cover too, for situations when fixing the car is beyond your control. Although it can seem expensive, it’s very reassuring to have, both for you and your parents, and can really make a difference when you break down in the middle of nowhere and have no one else available to come and help you.

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