" Youth Keys" are Needed!!

     According to Maryland Department of Transportation in "Young Driver,""Did you know that 15 to 20 year-old drivers are the highest risk group for a fatal crash? Seventy percent of fatalities in this age group involve the use of alcohol. Night driving statistics are even worse."(1) Young driver's are making the mistake of being over confident in their driving skills when they are really novice driver's. Teens assume because they have passed their driver's test that they are pros at knowing how to safely drive a vehicle. That is not the case at all, driving will always be a skill that you are tested on and overlooked by peers. One way to decrease fatalities caused by novice teen driver's is a "Youth Key." This is an amazing technology that was made for parents to put in cars that their teens will be driving. The "Key" has the ability to limit a cars speed and performances for certain settings. It also has a feature called "after- dark mode", which is for teens with a curfew for driving, it came make the car set to crews only at low speeds such as 40mph. 

     As California Department of Motor Vehicles says in "Young Drivers,""The ability to detect hazards in the driving environment depends upon perceptual and information-gathering skills and involves properly identifying stimuli as potential threats. It takes time for young novice drivers to acquire this ability."and " Risk perception involves subjectively assessing the degree of threat posed by a hazard and one's ability to deal with the threat. Young novice drivers tend to underestimate the crash risk in hazardous situations and overestimate their ability to avoid the threats they identify."(1) I have personally seen this first hand when I drive or a passenger of a novice driver, that we do not have the skill yet to see potential threats from all views in a vehicle. In the first two months of driving, I had to learn fast and early that I need to always be focused on cars in front and to my sides while trying to focus converging into a lane. These skills take longer than nine months to develop and practice before given a test on them, so it is no surprise that after being tested we still are not able to fully develop this skill until a later time in our driving experience. This "Youth Key" will give parents and novice driver the feeling a protection for them and other driver's. A problem this safety feature can cause is making teens feel like they can not be responsible and independent for themselves. But teens should try to remember this is for their safety and is removable when it needs to be. It is time parents become more responsible in caring for their teens safety while driving and should make this there priority when the time comes in their teen taking the next step in being an independent driver.

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References:

Ritchie, Gayle. "IT'S A NICE BIT OF KITT; 'YOUTH KEY' FOR SMART CARS." Global Issues in Context. N.p., 15 May 2010. Global Issues in Context. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. <http://find.galegroup.com.libproxy.howardcc.edu/gic/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=DateDescend&tabID=T006&prodId=GIC&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchId=R1&searchType=¤tPosition=1&qrySerId>.

Teenage Driver Crash Statistics. California Department of Motor Vehicles, n.d. Google. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. <http://www.dmv.ca.gov/teenweb/more_btn6/traffic>.

Roockie Driver. Maryloand Department of Motor Vehicles, n.d. Google. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. <http://www.mva.maryland.gov/Driver-Services/Rookie-Driver/youngdriver.htm>.