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by: DrProactive,RandyGilbert,ProducerofInsideSuccessRadio
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Many parents today are apprehensive about handing over the car keys to their teenager, and rightfully so. Car crashes kill more teenagers every year in this country than guns, drugs, alcohol, suicide and violence combined.

Parents fear the worst, yet underrate their responsibility in assuring the driving safety of their children. Many feel it is the responsibility of driver education programs to teach their teens the rules of the road and how to handle a vehicle.

Teenagers need at least 30 to 50 hours behind the wheel before they begin to understand the real dangers of the road and develop safe driving skills. In reality, our teenagers are only getting 1 to 6 hours behind the wheel of a car in driver's ed, in every state. That is barely enough time to understand the laws required to pass the driving test and handle the car in even the most basic traffic situations.

Parents have the ultimate responsibility to ensure their teens are properly educate with the skills and behaviors required to be safe and smart drivers. Timothy Smith, author of Crash Proof Your Kids, Make Your Teen a Safer, Smarter Driver believes "Either underestimating their role and lacking effective methods parents are failing to equip their teenagers with the skills to handle the single most dangerous thing they will ever do in their life and at their most risky age."

Smith, a father of three teenagers, decided it was time to get more involved after a series of fatal car crashes happened in his neighborhood involving mistakes by teen drivers. He began looking for information that would help his own teenagers develop safe driving skills but found little that was cohesive and useful. Nothing seemed to be available beyond basic driver's ed.

Using the talents that made him an award-winning author, coupled with the concerns of a parent and training for race car driving, Smith created the Crashproof Plan. It is designed to be a step by step plan to significantly reduce teen car crashes. Following his blueprint to safe teenage driving gives teenagers the skills needed to survive on the roads today, and successfully deal with adverse driving situations

The following tips might just save your teens life:

Sit down and discuss with your teen all the dangers and issues involved: speeding, road rage, drinking, drugs, distractions, cell phones, passengers, curfews etc. The steps to learning how to drive are complex but signing a Crashproof Contract to outline the boundaries, penalties, and incentives involved for driving decisions will help them understand the process.

Get your teen's participation in this process and agreement, to create a plan for your teen to safely assume the responsibility for use of a car. Help them understand this is about helping them deal with the single most dangerous thing they will probably ever do.

It is important to always remain a positive role model. Your children learn from you, they will emulate the driving habits you have showed them long before it was even time for them to starting thinking about learning. You cannot expect your teenagers to get into the car, use their seat belts, and practice safe driving practices if they don't see you doing the same thing.

Follow the driving rules you learned when you were teen but that so many of us fail to use today; such as driving within the speed limit, using your turn signals, being a courteous driver, and never using a cell phone while driving. Don't forget that your children are always surveying your every move, learning from your behavior and imitating your own actions

Communicate with your children about becoming safer and smarter drivers. Take an approach that does not criticize your teen, but emphasizes the measures needed for driving safely. Remain calm while driving with your teen, and focus on constructive ways to focus on their driving more effectively. You don't want your teenagers to turn you off, so make your time together and your lessons positive, with specific goals for each driving session.

Use simple exercises that reinforce step by step safe driving habits. Get them behind the wheel in every type of driving condition and help them with the specific hardships they will face in each situation. Practice driving in all types of weather, drive in the dark, in the city and on the highway.

Get started with these proactive strategies excerpted from the Crashproof Plan to help your teens be safer, smarter drivers. You will sleep better at night knowing that you did your part in giving your children the skills they need to return home safely every time they take a drive.

About the Author

For more teen crash proofing ideas from Timothy C. Smith listen to his entire enlightening interview with Randy Gilbert host of The Inside Success Show for FREE!

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