Parents
Guide to Young Driver Safety
You can save your child’s
life.
By Tom Wiecek, Certified Insurance
Counselor
Family Protection Specialist
As a parent, you are witnessing
an exciting time in your child’s life. A time in which a new “freedom” was “given” to
them.
This is also a time that is most
critical to their future.
Right now, you have the opportunity to control their
future.
It’s
sad, but true. Most parents “trust” the driver’s
education their children get in school. I know they do everything
they can. But how can a school give a thorough education
in the short time spent with so many other students?
If they
are lucky, students may get 2 hours of actual driving time
during a driver’s education course. Just 2 hours!
Is
2 hours enough to make a safe driver?
I
don’t think so. That’s why it’s up to you
to take control and make a safe driver out of your child.
Here is the story of 100 teenage drivers:
Based on national driving statistics, we can predict that:
- 37 teenagers will be ticketed for speeding
- 4 teenagers will be ticketed for driving
under the influence of alcohol or drugs
- 28 teenagers will be involved in accidents
where there will be damage to vehicles
- 13 teenagers will be injured in automobile
accidents
- 1 teenager will be killed in an automobile accident
The fact is automobile accidents are the leading
killer of teenagers in the country!
Will your family end up as one of these statistics?
Are
You a Good Role Model?
I am an insurance agent that has insured thousands of families-
many with young kids. And I have made two realizations over
the years that might be interesting to you.
- Parents who have tickets have young drivers with tickets.
- Parents who have had an accident have young drivers that
have had an accident.
What does that mean? To me, it means
simply, you can control your child’s future.
You are the biggest influence on your child.
You drive safe, your child will likely drive safe. You drive
recklessly, your child will likely drive recklessly.
Let me ask you a question. (There are more questions you
should ask yourself at the end of the manual)
Would you trust the safety of your child if he or she had
the same driving habits as you?
Think about that. Have you ever broken
a traffic law? Did you ever get “lucky” and
avoided an accident as a result of your mistake?
What if your child made these same
mistakes without the experience you have? Would they have
been able to react like you? What if they weren’t
so lucky?
If you are a safe driver 100% of the time, please accept
my apologies. I am not talking to you.
If you are not, please think about being a positive role model
and not an example that can lead to disaster.
10 Helpful Tips for Parents
- Spend time with your young driver behind the
wheel. A client of mine gave me a great suggestion.
He made his son and daughter spend 100 hours driving
before they can get their driver’s license. Each
had one year to complete this and probably made the biggest
impact their future.
- Discuss emergency situations with your child.
Explain to them how to react to certain situations such
as someone swerving into your lane.
- Observe and learn. Have your young driver
observe other drivers and point out the mistakes they make.
- Lay out the ground rules. Set time limits,
speed limits, road restrictions, cell phone use, and other
rules before they start to drive.
- Keep your temper. Show your teenager
how to maintain control of your anger when driving.
- Plan your route. Show your new driver
to practice advanced route planning before you drive.
- Practice, practice, practice. In areas
that are open and safe, practice starting, accelerating,
turning, stopping, backing up and parking. Remember good
driving habits must be a natural reflex and that only happens
after months and months on the road.
- Stress the rules to live by. Read our
Safe Teen Driver Handbook and stress these rules as you
spend time with your child driving.
- Talk about the consequences. Explain
to them how much it costs for them to drive and how much
it will cost if they get a ticket or accident. Develop
your own family punishment for breaking the rules.
10. PRACTICE
WHAT YOU PREACH! Remember new drivers learn by
example too. Your behavior behind the wheel is probably
more influential than the driving techniques you teach.
The time you spend at this important
time in your teenager’s
life can mold their behavior for years to come.
Insurance “Insider” Reveals
Little Known Secrets of How You Can Protect Yourself And
Your Loved Ones –
While You
Save Money…
You
see, I’ve been working inside the insurance industry
for many years now. I’ve studied in detail everything
from polices to claims. And I’ve made a moral
decision: to reveal the inside secrets of how
you can leverage the vast resources of this multi-billion
dollar industry for your financial well being. I
specialize in the needs of family insurance and I have decided
to dedicate myself to unlocking some of the valuable “mysteries” of
the insurance industry.
The Dirty Truth About Insuring Teen
Drivers
OK.
By now, you may now understand my biggest point in this guide.
You child is far more likely to get into an accident than
an experienced driver. Statistics prove that your
young driver is 3 times more likely than a 30 year old!
With that
said, are you
properly protected when they do get into an accident? An
accident that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars? Let’s
find out.
You probably already have good coverage for adult drivers.
You may be carrying the most common liability and uninsured/
underinsured motorist limits that 85% of adults carry. But
as litigation cost sore and the increased chance of an accident
with a young driver, those limits are too low!
The story I told you about the young girl thrown from a
car was a good example of how parents should increase certain
limits on their coverage. $100,000 bodily injury limits may
have been fine ten years ago but now are considered very
low.
Like bodily injury limits, $100,000
for property damage can be low as well. A new BMW or Mercedes
can eat up almost all of that. If additional cars are involved,
you’re
in trouble.
The best and cheapest additional liability coverage you
can buy is an umbrella. You may have heard
of these, but it is the best kept secret in our business.
You can buy $1,000,000 liability policy for less than $15
per month. That is the best kind of asset disaster
protection you can buy!
If what I am saying here is new to
you, you absolutely must have a family insurance specialist
review your actual policy. Your current agent just isn’t
doing their job. And, if you have problems with your auto
policy, you may want your other coverages checked out to.
Now, Let’s
Look At Some of The Tricks That
You Can Use To Save Money On Your
Automobile Insurance!
Money Saving Tip #1) Raise your deductible. Your “deductible” is
the amount you pay when you make a claim before your insurance “kicks
in”. In other words, if you have a $1,000 claim
and a $250 deductible, you pay the first $250 and your insurance
company pays the next $750.
The disadvantage of raising
your deductible is that when you make a claim, you’ll pay more. The advantage of
raising your deductible is that your premium will go down,
sometimes as much as 15% to 30% on your
collision and comprehensive insurance.
Money Saving Tip #2)Drop your collision
and/or comprehensive insurance on older vehicles.
Sometimes it’s just not worth paying for comprehensive
and collision if your car is not worth that much to begin
with. That’s because the amount you pay
for the deductible plus the amount you pay for the premium
may be more than the value of the car itself. A
rule of thumb is that if a car is worth less than $2,000,
drop these coverage’s -- but many people are
comfortable with even higher figures. Go to Kelly
Blue Book at KBB.com to determine the value of your vehicle.
Money Saving Tip #3) Buy
a “lower
profile” vehicle. Part of what determines
the cost of insurance is the kind of car you own. Some
cars are favorite cars for thieves. Some cars are
more expensive to repair. Generally, these cars will
cost more to insure. To get detailed information
on your car – or car you’re thinking
about buying –give our office a call for the symbol
rating for a vehicle. The symbol rating can be used
for comparing rates from one vehicle to another. We do
this for all of our clients for free.
Money Saving Tip #4) Insure your
automobile with the same company that insures your home. Most
companies offer discounts when you have all your insurance
with the same company. You can save up to 20% on
your auto insurance premiums if you have your homeowners
insurance and auto insurance with the same company. You
will also get a discount on your homeowners.
Money Saving Tip #5)Keep on eye on
your credit score. What does credit have to do with
insurance? It has a lot to do with it today. In the past
few years, insurance companies started using credit for
underwriting. It is used to place people in certain pricing
tiers and responsibility is why. They believe that if someone
is responsible enough to keep their credit clean, they
are responsible enough to drive safe. Believe it or not,
the numbers prove this works in general. Insurance is a
numbers game and in order to be competitive, they must
save where they can.
Money Saving Tip #6)Check out other
discounts. Insurance companies try to reward
drivers what they think are good risks. That’s
the kind of driver they want. Responsible and safety
conscious drivers are going to pay lower premiums. Claims
free discounts and superior credit will allow you to be
insured with a company that has the lowest premiums available. There
are other discounts like automatic seatbelts, airbags,
mature drivers, and safe drivers. Another great discount
is the “Good Student” discount. Companies that
specialize in insuring young drivers will offer this valuable
discount. Call us about these and other discounts that
are currently being offered in our area.
Money Saving Tip #7) Use an independent
agent that specializes in family protection. Don’t
trust your hard earned dollars to someone that works directly
for one insurance company. Use someone that can “shop” your
premium with several companies. This agent will look
out for your interests and keep your premiums down for
the long term. Insurance companies experience good
times and bad times depending on their losses for a given
year or years. If your insurance company has significantly
increased their premiums for more than a year or two, it
may be time for your agent to “shop” for you. If
you are using an agent that works for just one company,
they won’t be doing much “shopping”. You’ll
have to cut back on your coverage and make changes that
can increase your liability.
3 Steps to Rock Solid Family Protection
Right now, let’s talk about 3 of the most
important things you can do to protect your financial well
being for yourself and your family:
1. Have an insurance specialist conduct a Risk Analysis
on your home, car and family. You live in
the real world. Your life probably has more risks
than you dream of. And everyone is different! You
could be opening yourself and your family to financial
disaster unless you’ve had someone help you analyze
your risks and put together a comprehensive insurance plan
to protect you. Our office will do that for FREE.
2.Use an independent insurance
agent. I’ll be blunt. I
know how this industry works. Like I said, there’s
a lot of money in the insurance industry, and you want
to make sure it works for you.
You don’t want an insurance company employee for your
agent. You want someone who’s going to work for
you! Not someone whose paycheck is tied to one company. You
want someone who can shop the market, compare prices and
get the most comprehensive coverage – maybe even use
multiple companies for your total coverage if that’s
what it takes. Again, individual needs are different – one
company may not be able to meet those needs.
You want a good price. You
want protection when disaster strikes. Use an independent
agent!
3.Don’t trust your family’s
financial protection to an insurance agent who is not a
specialist with insuring families. Insurance
is a huge industry. Anything you can have, do, own,
manage, or whatever… there’s insurance for
everything. Nobody can specialize
in it all. In fact, a professional independent agent
can only specialize in a few niches and really understand
them.
Wishing you and your family good health, prosperity and
safe driving!
Tom Wiecek, Certified Insurance Counselor
Family
Protection Specialist
Speaker and Consultant
Paramount Insurance Agency
PS I am sure your child’s life
is most precious to you. Take the time to spend with your
child and teach them to drive safe. They will have a better
driving experience and will be able to handle the dangers
that they experience on the road.
Sample rules for your child
- Set curfews for weeknights and weekends. More than half
of the fatal car crashes involving new drivers happen between
9pm and 6am.
- Set a limit on the number of passengers under the age
of 21.
- Call home when they reach their destination
- Set guidelines based on academic grades and driving privileges
- Set punishments for violation of rules
Questions to ask yourself
- Do you use your seatbelt at all times?
- Do you insist that all passengers wear their seatbelt?
- Do you obey all posted speed limits?
- Do you talk on the cell phone when driving?
- Do you allow a safe distance between you and the car
in front of you?
- Do you wait and look both ways before accelerating at
a traffic light or stop sign?
- Do you know how to change a flat tire and have you shown
your child how?
- Do you always use your turn signals?
- Do you eat or drink while driving?
- Do you drive aggressively?
- Do you play with the radio while driving?
- Do you talk to your kids about driving hazards while
you drive?
- Do you tell you child that you love them every time they
get behind the wheel?
This story is repeated all over the
country and you have probably read or heard of similar
stories. The first year of their driving experience is
the most critical! Please don’t let your family become
a similar story.
The following agreement between parents and teenagers grants
teenagers the right to drive.
© 2006, RA Fraser: The reader assumes all responsibilities
for his/her own actions in regards to any items discussed
in this report. Adherence to all applicable laws and
regulations, federal, state and local, governing the use
of any product or service described in this report in the
US or any other jurisdiction is the sole responsibility of
the reader. The publisher and author assume no responsibility
or liability whatsoever on the behalf of the reader of these
materials. The reader is encouraged to consult directly with
his/her insurance professional.
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