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Back to school? Check teen's cars for road worthiness

New jeans, new shoes, new tires?

Families spend more than $600 on back-to-school supplies, but how much do they spend on their teen’s driver safety? A new school year is an exciting time for teens. It means new clothes, new school supplies, a new schedule of classes; it’s a great new start!

Families do their best to outfit their youth with the best, but few consider the safety of travel to and from school. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 5,000 teens (ages 16-20) are killed each year in passenger vehicle crashes. National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) encourages families to include car, route and travel safety in back-to-school readiness.

“Parents are involved in so much of their teen’s lives, everything from grades, to sports, to who they are hanging out with,” says Sandy Spavone, NOYS executive director, “but what they don’t know is that they have the opportunity to get involved and positively influence one of the most important and dangerous activities a teen will experience -- driving.”

Parents and teens must work together to prevent teen crashes and encourage back-to-school driver/travel safety. Many new teen drivers are driving to school for the first time, and it’s possible that normal routes to school have been under construction during the summer months, so extra caution is needed during this back-to-school season. NOYS encourages parents to take steps to discuss and prepare for the safest route to school.

Items to check on your teen’s car:

Tire tread
Tire pressure
Windshield wiper and fluid
Brakes
Travel route for safety

Items to discuss with your teen:

No cell phone use while driving
Seatbelt use
Speed limits
Passenger limits

The newest clothes and greatest electronics are fantastic, but nothing is more important than getting to and from school safely. Make sure back-to-school planning includes back-to-school driver safety.