Experience: Probably the greatest factor in traffic crashes for young people is inexperience. Whether you’re a musician, an athlete, or a scholar, you know how much practice it takes to develop your skills. It’s the same with driving. You wouldn’t expect to play in the NFL after 6 months of football practice - don’t expect to be able to handle every driving situation on the road. Slower speeds and longer following distances will give you more time to make the right decision in a new and challenging scenario.

Seatbelts: One of the easiest things you can do to protect yourself is put on your seatbelt. You’ve heard it a million times, but we keep saying it because it’s true. Wearing a seatbelt increases your survivability in a crash by 40 - 50%. Traffic fatalities have reduced by 50% since Washington adopted a seatbelt law.

Speeding: Do teens have a problem with speeding? Let’s just put it this way: Of the 2404 speed-related deaths in Washington over the past ten years, over 25 percent of them involved drivers age 20 and under. Slowing down gives you time to plan for the unexpected and increases survival rates in crashes.

Driving Impaired: Drivers using alcohol or drugs are responsible for about 40% of all traffic fatalities, even though a very small percentage of drivers on the road fit that description. By eliminating impaired driving we’d prevent about 17,000 deaths every year.

Cell Phones and Texting: Phones, radios, food, drinks, friends - they can all distract you from your primary responsibility when you’re behind the wheel. In the time it takes you to dial a phone number or pick up a spilled coffee, your car will travel down the freeway the length of a football field. A lot can happen in that time, and if you’re not paying attention, you won’t be ready for it. About 80% of crashes involve driver inattention within 3 seconds of the crash. You’ll never know which 3 seconds you need to pay attention to until it happens.

Road Rage: Chill out. Getting cut off in traffic only slows you down a couple seconds. Road rage usually happens when someone’s ego gets in the way of their common sense. You’re going to encounter some bad drivers on the road. Don’t let them turn you into one too.

Driving Like An Idiot: You know it when you see it. There’s a lot of behaviors that don’t fit into the above categories that are obviously dangerous. Stuff like racing, switching drivers while the car is moving, ghost driving - it seems fun until the medics strap you to a gurney and start doing chest compressions. Good judgment is one of your most valuable driving skills.