Teen Driver Safety Week How you can prevent crashes from happening

Parents are being encouraged to talk to their teens about taking safety precautions behind the wheel during Teen Driving Safety Week this week.

Nationwide, the most recent statistics by Triple- A and the Center for Disease Control show roughly 293,000 teens being treated at emergency rooms from traffic-related incidents.

Shelly Police Officer Jake Johnson is a resource officer at Shelly High and says the problem is that teens are more likely to underestimate dangerous situations or not be able to recognize something that could be dangerous on the road.

“Teen drivers need to realize that driving a vehicle is one of the largest responsibilities they have”

He knows because he lost his daughter, Olivia, earlier this year to an unrelated car crash.

Research conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Triple- A say two- thirds of the people injured or killed in a teen driver crash are someone other than the driver.

In 2016, there were more than a million teen driver crashes nationwide, involving 2.8 million people and resulting in over 3,200 deaths. In Idaho, there were 23 fatalities in teen -driver related crashes.

The most deadly time for teens to be on the road is after school between the hours of 3 p.m. and midnight Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Officer Johnson says it’s up to Parents to make the difference by talking to their teens and encouraging them to take precautions on the road.

“I think more education and trying to emphasize their kids to stay off their phones, don’t rush, and of course, don’t use substances before getting behind the wheel”.

For more information on teen driving safety, click HERE