A Comprehensive Tutorial With Safety Tips for New Drivers

We were all teenagers once and we remember that feeling of elation we got when we opened our wallets and saw our new license tucked in. Unlike adults, who would be much happier to find some extra money in their wallets, teenagers are eager to see that driver’s license just sitting there, reminding them that they are one step closer to the magical world of adulthood. 

But, as it turns out, it is not all so magical after all. If you are not careful, you might end up disappointed and even hurt. In order to avoid these problems, you need to learn and follow our safety tips for new drivers. 

Of course, your parents are there and they can help you. But, being only humans themselves, they make mistakes too. Picking up some of their driving habits might not be the smartest thing to do. Therefore, you need to go through some good safety tips and educate yourself as best as you can. We are presenting you with some safety tips for young drivers. 

• Wear Your Seatbelt

We know it might not look cool wearing your seat belt when you’re a teenager, but it is really important for you to do so. It can save your life in certain situations. Even when you follow all the rules and give your best to be a good driver, accidents happen. Often by someone else’s mistake, where you can do nothing about it. Well, nothing except wear the seat belt. As long as you are doing your part to be as safe as possible, you are part of the solution. 

• Forget About Your Phone

Yes, it is tempting and all your friends might be online and in the middle of a cool conversation in that group chat, but it can bring you real-life problems. One glance on your phone can do as much as take away someone’s life. Is it worth that much? One of the reasons for so many car accidents caused by young drivers is because of cell phone use. This has been the problem number one among teenage drivers. A lot of people die every year because of people distracted by cell phones.

• Don’t Record Yourself While Driving

The latest hit on social media networks, where famous people drive and record themselves has been a trigger for many problems in driving. Young people, often fans of such celebrities, think it’s cool to record themselves too because their idols do it. This is dangerous behavior though because it causes the driver to draw attention from the road. Directing attention away from the road for any length of time is negligent and can cause fatal accidents.

• It’s Not a Clown Car

We know that all your friends want to go for a ride and bump the music. However, having too many people in the car at once can cause some serious problems. It may not seem like a big deal to you because you can fit a lot of people in the vehicle. But if there are more people than seatbelts it’s not cool. If you are driving around having fun, listening to music, chances are you are not paying full attention to the road. If your vehicle is overstuffed with people and you get into an accident it will not be pretty. Always remember to think about the lives of your passengers and the people around you. If you kill somebody because of a mistake you made, you can’t take it back. There are no do-overs.

• Sleep Before You Drive

Being a teenager often means staying up late, chatting with friends, or enjoying Netflix. After a night like that, you should not sit at the steering wheel and drive. What you need to do is get some sleep and make sure you are OK to drive.  You might feel like you can go through with it, but there are so many cases where people fell asleep at the steering wheel. Young people often think that staying awake while driving is not harder than staying awake in that boring math class. This is where they are wrong. More and more cases of accidents caused by sleepy drivers have been reported. So, sleep before you drive! 

Notice that most of those tips we mentioned were connected to rising internet usage. Even when traveling, a lot of us need to use navigation systems. Here are a few recommended rules you can incorporate into your driving life to be safer:

• Turn off your phone or put it on flight mode;
• Set up your navigation and find your route beforehand. Start it just to check if all works fine;
• Set up your music. This is also an important one since we all have that bad habit of searching for the perfect song while driving;
• Adjust your seat and mirrors, because we don’t want to move while driving. We also should not move our mirrors on the road, since that can compromise our attention and focus;
• Check if all the lights are working: sidelights, rear lights, etc. 

After checking all of this, and keeping in mind the things mentioned above, we are ready to go. Of course, once on the road, don’t forget to follow all the rules and the road itself. 

Eyezupapp.com is dedicated to keeping our young, new drivers safe on the roads by reducing the problem of distracted driving.  We have developed a comprehensive safe driving app that allows the parent or guardian to shut off texting while driving on their child’s phone from the parent phone without the teen driver being able to shut the app off.  It stops all incoming text messages from being answered and keeps your driver focused on driving. You can download your free 7-day free trial to stop distracted driving here.