Accessibility menu
State Representative Michael Beard
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-8872
For more information contact: Jodi Boyne 651-296-0640
HOUSE BRIEFS
NATIONAL TEEN DRIVER SAFETY WEEK
Friends,
This week (October 15-21) is National Teen Driver Safety Week, and for good reason. According to AAA Minnesota/Iowa, teens make up only 7 percent of all drivers but are involved in 13 percent of fatal crashes. In fact, auto crashes cause more teenage deaths than the next four causes combined. When we as parents hand over the car keys, we are also probably handing our children more responsibility than they have ever had to bear. But before we do so, it’s important that we make sure they are prepared. Here are some recommendations from AAA on what to talk about with our young drivers:
1 – Wear a seat belt. A tragically-high 75 percent of teens killed in vehicles were not buckled. It’s quick, easy and the best thing you can do to prevent serious injury.
2 – Avoid distractions. Eating, talking on the phone and text messaging all distract young drivers from the task at hand – driving – and make it more likely they will cause a crash. In most cases, it is illegal for driver’s on provisional licenses to use cell phones while driving. Regardless, we need to remind our kids that no phone call or text message is worth endangering your life.
3 – Don’t speed. Speeding is the number one cause of single-vehicle crashes, especially during adverse driving conditions. That’s an important fact as we move into the winter driving season.
Next week is National School Bus Safety Week. It is critical that all drivers of every age be alert and extremely cautious when sharing the road with school buses that make frequent stops. For more information, I encourage you to visit http://www.minnesotasafetycouncil.org/ where you’ll find plenty of information on bus safety and driving safety in general.
I hope you find this information helpful.
News Items
- Less Government Regulation Encourages Economic Growth - (Posted: 2012-02-27 00:00:00)
- MNDOT Awards Funding for Highway 101 Bridge Replacement - (Posted: 2012-03-30 00:00:00)
- Reform a Priority in 2012 - (Posted: 2012-01-25 00:00:00)
- Archived News Items
- Subscribe to RSS News Feeds
- Read more about RSS.