This week marks National Teen Driver Safety Week and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is joining with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in an effort to help empower parents to talk with their young drivers about the importance of safe driving.
According to the NHTSA, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for teens in the United States. Per mile driven, teens are involved in three times as many fatal crashes as all other drivers.
According to the state Office of Highway Safety, over the past three years in Kentucky, there were more than 48,000 crashes involving a teenage driver, resulting in more than 14,000 injuries and 187 deaths.
NHTSA’s website, www.nhtsa.gov/road-safety/teen-driving, has information and statistics on teen driving and outlines six basic rules for the road: avoiding distracted driving, wearing seat belts, taking extra caution when driving with passengers, obeying speed limits, never driving impaired, and not driving drowsy.