Boarding Schools for Girls

Teenage girls are driving more aggressively, even as teenage boys are taking fewer risks behind the wheel, according to new research from Allstate Insurance Company.

• 16 percent of the girls said they were very aggressive while driving, compared to only 9 percent of girls in 2005
• Among boys, reports of aggressive driving declined from 20 percent in 2005 to 13 percent in 2009.
• Almost 30 percent of girls admit to speeding 10 miles per hour over the speed limit compared to 20 percent of boys
• 25 percent of girls said they text while driving, compared to 15 percent of boys.

"As more young women participate in activities like competitive sports and take on a more assertive lifestyle, they are narrowing the gender gap when it comes to risk taking in all the aspects of their life, " said Dr. Alan Williams of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Car crashes are the number one cause of death for teenagers in the United States, and most crashes involve speeding, driver distraction, and driver error.

Labels: teenagers, driving

Posted By: Aspen/CRC 0 Comments

Ford Motor Company will soon begin offering "MyKey," a device that allows parents to monitor their teen drivers, in some of its vehicles. MyKey will not allow a driver to exceed a predetermined speed, will limit the volume of a vehicle's sound system, and will also make loud dings until the driver's seatbelt is buckled.

There are already several other devices on the market, such as Drive Cam, that allow parents to record their child's driving and track them via computer.

My Key will be standard equipment on Fords in 2010.

Labels: driving, safety

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments

A new study from the United Kingdom found that teens are most at risk for car accidents if they have had their licenses for less than thirty weeks, and if there are passengers in the car.

"Young passengers can distract young drivers and encourage them to drive in a risky way," according to the study, which was produced by the Association of British Insurers.

American studies have come to similar conclusions, leading to "graduated teen licensing" laws in many states. These laws restrict the time of day and number of passengers allowed in the cars of newly licensed drivers. The British Association is proposing that drivers under age 20 be allowed only one passenger during their first six months of driving.

Labels: driving, safety

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments

The average teenager sends between five and six text messages an hour, or about 2,779 a month, according to a new study from the Nielsen Company. Children under 12 years old average 1146 such messages a month, representing an 8 percent increase since last year.

Nielsen did this study by monitoring 40,000 cell phone bills from April 2009 to March 2000 town. The research found that teenagers text on phones about four times as often as they talk on them, although that changes once they reach the ages of 18 to 24 years old.

About one in four teenagers uses text messaging while driving.
 

Labels: driving, texting

Posted By: CRC Health 1 Comment