Last month I talked about the laws that apply specifically to teen drivers. With school back in session and a lot of teens now driving themselves, siblings, and friends to school, here are some tips to help them drive more safely. It’s a good reminder for experienced drivers, too. Just because you’ve been driving for 30 years doesn’t mean you can’t learn to be a safer driver.

For teen drivers, one of the main causes of crashes is distracted driving. Overall, distracted driving leads to more than 3,000 deaths annually. An experienced driver may perform a lot of crucial driving functions automatically, but newer drivers often have to think through every step so any distraction can prove disastrous. You know that teens are glued to their phones and constantly checking their messages and social media – but just a couple of seconds with their eyes off the road can be fatal. If you’re driving at 55 mph and take your eyes off the road for only five seconds to read a text, you’ll travel the length of a football field. Think what could happen in that time – the car in front of you could hit the brakes, a kid could run across the road, or you could veer onto the shoulder and hit a tree. It’s not only illegal to text and drive – it is extremely dangerous.

There are plenty of other distractions that can affect teens. When young or novice drivers have passengers, their odds of being in a crash go up. Everything that takes a driver’s attention off the road, whether it is an animated conversation or engaging in horseplay, can contribute to an accident. Furthermore, when teens get together there is a tendency for them to mutually encourage risky behavior. While a teen might drive sensibly when alone, their behavior may change when their friends in the back seat criticize them for driving too slowly, encourage them to pass, or shout “Floor it!” when the light changes. Peer pressure applies to driving too.

Of course, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol is both illegal and dangerous no matter what your age. Florida has a zero-tolerance policy for young drivers – while the adult limit is .08, if a driver under age 21 has a blood alcohol level of .02 their license is automatically suspended. Of drivers ages 15 to 20 who were killed in car crashes in 2022, 30 percent had a blood alcohol content higher than .01, which means they had been drinking. Talk with your teens about the dangers of drunk driving. If they do make a mistake and drink, make sure they know the alternatives to getting behind the wheel – have a plan in place for a rideshare or let them know that they can call you.

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office has a couple of ways to help your teen become a better, safer, less distracted driver. Every year we present a Targeted Response Against Distracted Driving (TRADD) class at a local high school, in which students experience the dangers of distraction firsthand while driving a multipurpose vehicle, and also feel the simulated effects of alcohol or drug impairment on their driving. We also have the Teen Driver Challenge, a two-day program that begins with a classroom portion, and then takes students through a driving course with the same instructors who teach our deputies. You can register your teen for the Teen Driver Challenge on our website, www.pcsoweb.com.