During the summer months, roads and highways in Louisville from Parkway Village to Deer Park get a little more dangerous when teens and college students are off from school and decide to celebrate summer vacation.
In Kentucky, summer vacation should be a time for relaxing and unwinding from the stress of academics, but it has become a time when young people are more likely to engage in high risk behaviors that can lead to motor vehicle collisions. A Louisville personal injury lawyer knows that teens not only endanger themselves but they also endanger passengers in their cars and other people on the roads.
Parents and young people need to be aware of the added risks linked to summer driving. Parents should talk to both high school and college students about the dangers of driving drunk, texting while driving and engaging in other high-risk behaviors. Teens and college students should also make a commitment to put safety first even as they have a good time.
Summer Vacation Can Be a Dangerous Time on the Roads
Teens in the Driver’s Seat is a peer-to-peer educational program designed to help young people to understand the driving risks they face. The program’s educational material warns people that motor vehicle collisions cause around 500,000 teen injuries each year and are responsible for as many as 40 percent of fatalities among teenagers.
There are a lot of reasons why teens get into more accidents, but five of the primary factors that lead to collisions include:
- Driving impaired by alcohol or drugs
- Driving at night
- Speeding
- Driving while distracted
- Not wearing a seat belt
All of these behaviors may be more likely to occur during the summer months in particular. During the summer, young people often spend time together – sometimes unsupervised while parents are at work. Teenagers may drive around and go to parties. This is dangerous not just because of the potential for teens to drink, but also because more teen passengers in the car with a young driver increases risk taking and driver distraction.
Of course, alcohol is the biggest issue for teens on summer vacation, because so many young people drink. The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) recently brought to light the dangers of early addiction as part of April’s Alcohol Awareness Month, citing adolescence as a period of heightened risk-taking that may lead teens to make dangerous decisions behind-the-wheel.
According to NCADD, underage and college drinking among those under age 21 account for 11 percent of all alcohol consumed across the United States. With so many underage teens and college students drinking, the NCADD estimates more than 1,900 accident-related fatalities among those under 21 alone.
Parents of high school and college kids need to be aware of the dangers that drunk and distracted driving present and should talk to their kids about avoiding situations where serious injury or even death is likely to occur.
A Louisville, Kentucky accident lawyer can help collision victims. Contact The Whaley Law Firm or visit https://louisville-accident-lawyer.com/ to schedule a free consultation. Serving
Louisville, KY and surrounding communities.