Safe @ 16
Teen Driver

Practicing with your new driver.

by Steve Mochel on 09/29/12


Parents are the key.
When it comes to keeping new teen drivers safe behind the wheel, the facts are clear. Parents who are actively involved in their child's driver education significantly reduce crash rates of new teen drivers. And the most important thing we can do as parents is practice driving with our new drivers - as stressful as that can be sometimes!.


But how and what should we be practicing?

There's an app for that.
State Farm Insurance has created a really great program called Steer Clear for new teen drivers and their parents. The coolest feature of this program is the Steer Clear app that they have developed for both iPhones and Android phones. It has 20 helpful practice drive scenarios, a timer to keep track of driving, and a number of other features. And the best part is that it's free!

Here are a few screenshots.



If you end up using Steer Clear with your new driver, I'd love to know what you think about it!

Teen Drivers with ADD

by Steve Mochel on 06/01/12

NBC Nightly News spent a day at Fresh Green Light recently while one of our students, Annie, went through her lessons both in-car with an instructor and in our state-of-the-art Driving Simulators. 

Annie is 17 and has ADHD. She's also a great example of how both teens and parents can partner to take on this challenge together.  Here's her story.

 

It took less than 2 seconds...

by Steve Mochel on 05/17/12

 

It took less than 2 seconds from the last moment her finger touched the screen of her iPhone to the time the first 911 call was made.

She never saw him. There were no signs of braking.

It took less than 2 seconds for a new, 16 year-old driver to kill a man by veering slightly to the right while trying to access the New Canaan High School website on her iPhone.

Two families are totally shattered. And it took less than 2 seconds.

This could be you or me. This could be my son or your daughter. This could be your brother or my sister. This could be anybody we know and love.

Please share this story with every driver you know and implore them to make the personal commitment to put their phone away and out of reach while they drive.

It took less than 2 seconds.

The Last Text

by Steve Mochel on 04/14/12

As part of Distracted Driving Awareness Month, several local High Schools have asked me to come in and speak to their students about texting and driving.  I'm always grateful that the schools recognize distracted driving as the real danger that it is to our young drivers. 

As part of my presentation, I always show this incredibly powerful documentary film made by AT&T that tells the story of 4 teenagers and how their lives have been permanently changed by texting and driving.

If you haven't seen it, please take 10 minutes and watch this with anyone in your home who is driving or learning to drive.   And then please share it with your friends and family who have young drivers.

 

There's an app for that.

by Steve Mochel on 04/07/12

boy texting

With the epidemic of Distracted Driving taking over our roadways, a few smart start-ups have created apps to help us break your Crackberry addictions and focus on being safe behind the wheel.  These smarphone apps literally sense the phone is traveling (via internal GPS) and block incoming texts and calls with an automatic response teller the sender that you are driving.

Here are a couple of my favorites.

PhoneGuard : The fact that Justin Bieber is the spokesperson for this app is either a plus or minus based on your teen, but the app performs really well.  It has a speed monitor and geofencing capability so you can get a text message or email if your driver is exceeding a predetermined speed limit or traveling outside a pre-set zone.  The downside is that it only blocks texting - phone calls are still allowed.   It has a 14 day free trial and is the only app so far that also works (somewhat) with the iPhone.

iZup: There is a free version of this one to test out this app, which is only available for Blackberry and Droid at this time.  Blocks emails, texts and calls, but allows emergency calls as well as calls from pre-authorized numbers. The cost for the Pro version is $ 19.95 annually or $ 59.95 annually for a family plan (up to 5 phones).

txtBlocker : Also only for Blackberry and Android at this time and is similar to PhoneGuard in its capabilities.  One difference is the ability to create "No Phone Zone's to keep your teen from being distracted by their phone at school or work...not sure if this is good or bad based on the fact that my kids primarily communicate with me via text from school.

All of these apps are pretty tamper proof or send an alert to the parent if the app has been turned off while the car is moving.  They also are pretty hard on battery life, so a car charger is probably a good idea.

Have you seen any textblocking apps that you like?

Fresh Green Light
learning to drive for life
Helpful Resources for
Parents of Teen Drivers
Effective Parenting for Young Drivers

Teach Your Kid How To Drive

Drivers Ed Guru

The Safe Driver

CDC: Parents Are The Key

Crashproof Your Kids

Alive @ 25

USDOT: Distraction.gov

NY Times: Driven to Distration

The Standup Act

Oprah's No Phone Zone

DashTrac - GPS Tracking for Teen Drivers


A blog for parents of new teen drivers