10 Road Safety Rules You Should Teach Your Children

Whether you have young children that are just learning about what it means to drive or a house filled with young drivers, you need to keep them prepared for life on the road. Use these 10 safety rules to give them an idea of how they can have a positive impact on their own safety.

1. Follow the Speed Limit

A major misconception holds that the speed limit is some sort of arbitrary guideline. It’s not, and your children must know that the speed limit is calculated based on response times and survival rates in accidents. The best way to be safe is to keep to a reasonable speed, the one that is posted.

2. Don’t Engage with Angry Drivers

More and more drivers are getting involved in road rage incidents that prove fatal to one or both of the drivers involved. Teach your child that if they feel themselves getting angry, it’s better to pull over and let themselves cool off instead of getting roped into a fight.

3. Keep Your Phone Away

Tell your child that you understand what they’re going through. They met someone using one of the top teen dating sites, and they want to spend all their time talking with their dates. Although finding the right service and partner can be extremely pleasant, there is no need to get distracted while on the road. Just wait until you get to your destination to pick up your conversation.

4. Pack for Emergencies

The road can be a very uncertain place, and every driver has to be prepared. That means packing the car for emergencies. Do you have jumper cables? Road flares? A fire extinguisher? How about a medical pack? All these elements should be found in every car to give the driver the ability to handle whatever life can throw at them.

5. Perform Routine Maintenance to Prevent Accidents

Although this isn’t directly related to road safety, the fact of the matter is that an ounce of prevention is worth a dollar of cure. That means taking care of your car will ensure it runs properly so that nothing bad happens on the road. Make sure to change your oil often, check your tires for damage, put air in your tires, and make sure your blinkers work.

6. Always Wear Your Seatbelt

This one should go without saying. A safety belt is often the one thing that separates an injury during an accident from a fatality. You have to impress upon your child the importance of wearing a seatbelt as well as making sure all passengers wear one as well. You will also get a fine if you are found not to be wearing a seatbelt as a driver.

7. Don’t Let Passengers Distract You

Another thing to remember is that passengers can be a major distraction. As a parent, you need to tell your kids that it can be a lot of fun to drive with friends, but they can’t take your attention off the road. Distracted drivers cause a lot of crashes every year, and young people lose friends and loved ones as a result.

8. Adjust the Car to You

Another thing to remember is that your young driver needs to adjust the car to suit their needs. A lot of people tend to get into a shared vehicle and take off. However, you should tell your children that it’s best if they re-organize the mirrors and adjust the seat to suit their needs. You need to see everything possible when driving, and no two drivers are alike in their needs.

9. Drive Safer in Bad Weather

The weather can have major impacts on driving. You need to teach your children to follow specific rules while driving in heavy rain or snow, such as:

• keep your headlights on;
             
• don’t change lanes quickly;
             
• lower your driving speed;
             
• increase your follow distance;
             
• make sure you slow down way before an intersection.

These are some of the best tips you can follow for driving in adverse conditions.

10. Always Stay Alert

Lastly, you need to make sure that you train your children to always be alert when they’re driving. Aside from distractions, new drivers have to learn how to recognize changes in the traffic pattern or predict when someone is going to change into their lane. Finding patterns in the way that people react on the road is critical to reacting in time to prevent accidents. 

Road safety is something for which everyone is responsible. The best way to prevent your child from ending up in a bad situation on the road is by preparing them before they go out. You can help them by showing them these rules and making sure you show them how to apply them when you’re out on the road.