Leveraging Peer Pressure to Reduce Teenage Auto Accidents in Charlotte
Teenage auto accidents in Charlotte and beyond often prove both frustrating and tragic.
Ask any insurance company about the risks associated with being a young driver, and you will be blown away. Young drivers may have less mature brains than do older drivers. In addition to the impulsivity and passions of youth, these drivers also deal with temptations that the typical 49-year-old doesn’t contend with – seeing peers race through suburban Charlotte at night, getting invited to late night parties with all sorts of shenanigans going on, etc.
On top of that, teenagers are still learning how to drive. And any time you learn a new activity, you must process through a learning curve of some sort – a time period when you make errors and course correct in an innovative process. Traditional pedagogy about North Carolina auto accident prevention tends to focus on tactical “stuff.”
In other words, educators try to scare teen drivers into “understanding” what can happen if they abuse their driving privileges. They provide basic knowledge and training about vehicular use and maintenance. And so forth. But the teaching process is often a battle. If an “old fuddy-duddy” teaches good driving habits, and a teenager’s cool friends are engaged in crazy “envelope pushing” behavior, the safety experts are going to be fighting an uphill battle for control of the teenager’s metaphorical “driving soul.”
Perhaps a better way to approach teenage driving safety is to use peer pressure as a leverage point!
Educators, in other words, might want to ask themselves “how can we make it socially unacceptable for teenagers to drive drunk or drive while texting?” For instance, driving without a seatbelt no longer makes you a “cool kid.” Why? Is it because cool kids don’t rebel anymore? Not by a long shot. It’s because it’s no longer socially acceptable to rebel in that way – i.e. by not wearing your seatbelt.
Imagine if it were similarly socially unacceptable to text while driving or to drink and drive? Teenage peer pressure would just shut these problems down, wouldn’t it?!
Just a thought.
If you or someone you care about was hurt in a car accident, connect with the team here at the Law Offices of Michael A. DeMayo today for free and fair consultation.
