Prepare your teen for safe driving

19 June 2012

Prepare your teen for their drive to this year’s Queenstown Winter Festival

The cold has arrived, and with snow blanketing many parts of the country it’s a reminder that the winter festival season is just around the corner.
For parents with teenagers heading to one of the many winter festivals scheduled for the next few months, it’s time to start thinking about how you can help your teen drivers prepare for a safe journey to and from their festival destination. Remember, it is not just advice for when they arrive at the event that is useful – but guidance for the drive there and back is vital too.

For some teens, this will be their first experience of driving long distances in potentially wet and icy conditions – a stressful experience for both the driver and the parent waiting at home.

The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has created a dedicated website to help parents with teen drivers – www.safeteendriver.co.nz – which offers a set of practical skills and free tools to encourage parents to work alongside their teens to help identify and manage risk situations, when driving by themselves.

“The Safe Teen Driver website not only provides useful festival hazard advice to discuss with your teen, it also suggests some different ways to talk about the risks so they don’t think you’re over-reacting,” says NZTA Chief Executive Geoff Dangerfield.

NZTA Regional Manager Access and Use Southern Greg Allnutt suggests the following tips for driving to the Queenstown Winter Festival (22 June – 1 July):

• Get your teen to plan their trip, check the weather forecast and road conditions before they leave, and think about where they’re going and what route they should take.

• SH6 and 8 to the north and south of Wanaka have several sections of winding, rolling and mountainous terrain. Teens will need to take extra care especially on sections such as the Lindis Pass between Wanaka and Omarama, the Manuka Gorge between Milton and Lawrence and the Kawarau Gorge between Queenstown and Cromwell.

• The weather in this area during winter can be treacherous, with fog, ice and snow ready to booby trap these roads, so teens need to take extra care and drive to the conditions. Teens will have to drive slower than they normally would; it only takes a spilt second to lose control in wet and icy conditions.

• Teens should carry snow chains that they know how to use and fit and should also be aware of when they need to put them on.

Other key areas the NZTA encourages parents to discuss with their teen drivers includes:

• Highlighting the best route and busy areas
Where possible, parents should thoroughly plan their teen’s route with them, so they can concentrate on driving and not be distracted by navigating

• Planning ahead
The www.highwayinfo.govt.nz site lists current road conditions and any delays, hazards or closures on the state highway network.

• The importance of getting enough sleep

Even moderate sleep deprivation can be dangerous when driving

• Driving at night
40% of crashes involving young drivers happen when it’s dark

• Driving with friends in the car
When a young driver has two or more passengers in the car with them, they’re ten times more likely to have a crash than if they were driving alone. If those passengers are about the same age as the driver, the risk is more than fifteen times higher than if they were driving alone

Please visit www.safeteendriver.co.nz/festivalmap/ for more tips.

ENDS

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