According to the Federal Highway Administration, the average American drives 13,476 miles annually. Nearly 600,000 full-time employees in the United States endure "megacommutes" of at least an hour and a half and 50 miles every day. More than 1 in 4 workers (27%) commute outside of their county of residence to their job. Americans as a whole spend an awful lot of time driving, and all this time on the road means that there are many opportunities for accidents to happen.
We have included testimonials below of drivers and their experiences. Talk through each of these with your teen. Also use these to talk about your own experiences with your student driver.
"Summer 2010, my family and I were driving back to Georgia from Virginia, and my dad thought it'd be a good time for me to get some more highway experience. The car in front of me suddenly changed lanes, and then I saw that there was a huge mattress in the middle of my lane! So I had to quickly make sure the lane next to me was clear (which it was thank goodness) and I got over in time to avoid hitting it." -Brooke Dilliard
You never know when you might run into a driver like one of these, so it's always necessary to be cautious on the road:
"Once, while my mom and I were in a busy Kroger parking lot, I saw someone drive by reading a newspaper and eating yogurt with a spoon." -Victoria Chang"
"I saw a guy shaving his face and neck while driving and his girlfriend was sitting nonchalantly in the passenger seat." -Katie Horst
Sometimes, despite all the precautions we take, unfortunate accidents like these can happen:
"When I was leaving school one day, I pulled up behind some other cars waiting for the red light to change. Someone got into their truck and didn't see me pull up, and he missed my car and backed right up into mine." -Victoria Chang
"My mother was driving and my brother and I were in the backseat. We had just got back on the interstate after stopping for a bit. We were in the far right lane trying to merge when an 18 wheeler all of a sudden came over and decided he was going to change lanes into our lane. He couldn't see us and didn't realize that we were right where he was planning on coming. We tried to speed up and get out of his way, but there was a car in front of us and another one behind us so we were stuck. He ended up T-boning us and we spun across 5 lines of traffic into a grass median." -Rachel Eremchuk
We have included testimonials below of drivers and their experiences. Talk through each of these with your teen. Also use these to talk about your own experiences with your student driver.
"Summer 2010, my family and I were driving back to Georgia from Virginia, and my dad thought it'd be a good time for me to get some more highway experience. The car in front of me suddenly changed lanes, and then I saw that there was a huge mattress in the middle of my lane! So I had to quickly make sure the lane next to me was clear (which it was thank goodness) and I got over in time to avoid hitting it." -Brooke Dilliard
You never know when you might run into a driver like one of these, so it's always necessary to be cautious on the road:
"Once, while my mom and I were in a busy Kroger parking lot, I saw someone drive by reading a newspaper and eating yogurt with a spoon." -Victoria Chang"
"I saw a guy shaving his face and neck while driving and his girlfriend was sitting nonchalantly in the passenger seat." -Katie Horst
Sometimes, despite all the precautions we take, unfortunate accidents like these can happen:
"When I was leaving school one day, I pulled up behind some other cars waiting for the red light to change. Someone got into their truck and didn't see me pull up, and he missed my car and backed right up into mine." -Victoria Chang
"My mother was driving and my brother and I were in the backseat. We had just got back on the interstate after stopping for a bit. We were in the far right lane trying to merge when an 18 wheeler all of a sudden came over and decided he was going to change lanes into our lane. He couldn't see us and didn't realize that we were right where he was planning on coming. We tried to speed up and get out of his way, but there was a car in front of us and another one behind us so we were stuck. He ended up T-boning us and we spun across 5 lines of traffic into a grass median." -Rachel Eremchuk