The News Wheel
No Comments

GM Offers Five Essentials for First-Time Drivers

Decrease Font Size Increase Font Size Text Size Print This Page
GM Offers Five Essentials for First-Time Drivers

Review these five essentials for first-time drivers before letting your teen hit the open road.

In honor of Teen Driver Safety Week last week, General Motors reviewed a number of alarming teen driving statistics in an effort to motivate parents to sit down with their kids and talk to them about safe driving practices. To facilitate the conversation, we shared five rules for teen driving offered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The rules included the following:

  • No cell phones
  • No extra passengers
  • No speeding
  • No alcohol
  • Always buckle up

GM’s own blog, Fast Lane, has supplemented those tips with its own five essentials for first-time drivers. We thought they were worth sharing, so give ‘em a good glance before you sit down and talk with your novice teen driver.

Five Essentials for First-Time Drivers

  • Get familiar with the law. If a teenager feels ready to operate a vehicle, he needs to be ready to learn the rules that he must abide behind the wheel. This includes obeying speed limits.
  • Wear seatbelts. Your teen wants the responsibility of a car? She must also take responsibility for her life by buckling up.
  • Lose the distractions. Tell your teen that the radio should be off or at a reasonably low volume. Cell phones should be put away and accessed only in the event of an emergency, when the car is stopped. And your teen should not be toting around passengers who will cause commotion.
  • Study the car. If your teen is going to operate the vehicle, he’d better know how to use it. Before hitting the road, have him get acquainted with things such as the windshield wipers, hazards, the emergency brake, and more. Your teen should also know what all the sounds his car makes mean, and should react appropriately when reminder or emergency lights come on.
  • Be prepared for emergencies. Your teen needs to know that sometimes, things don’t go as planned. She should know whom to call in the event of an emergency, and how to take care of her car if something goes wrong. Cars with GM’s OnStar can be a welcome friend in the event of an emergency.

What other talking points do you discuss with your teens before letting them drive for the first time?

News Source: Fast Lane