(NAPSI)-Practice can make perfect. This adage holds true for sports, playing a musical instrument and especially when young people are learning how to drive.
While parents cannot protect their teens from every risk they may encounter during these years, helping teens improve as drivers may help prevent the tragedy and devastation that a motor vehicle crash too often brings to a family. It's estimated motor vehicle crashes claim the lives of nearly 4,000 teens each year and injure more than 300,000.
To help prevent these tragedies and the needless pain and suffering they bring to parents, family, friends and the community, the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS), through a grant from the UPS Foundation, developed The Novice Driver's Road Map.
Used by concerned parents and distributed by employers, high schools, pediatricians and state departments of motor vehicles, the Road Map is designed to help parents provide the missing link in a novice driver's education-practice.
Built around eight practice drives that expose the teen driver to progressively more difficult driving conditions and environments, the practice sessions increase the number of practice hours and provide communication tips and strategies to help create a learning environment that is positive and stress free.
The material is also designed to help parents cope with the important role of driving coach by assisting them as they navigate the challenging process of teaching a teen driver safe driving behaviors.
In addition to the Road Map, parents also get The Coach's Game Book, a companion piece that covers a variety of "need to know" information on graduated licensing laws, how to be a good role model, what mistakes to expect and how to manage the use of the car.
Learning how to drive and to drive well is an important transition from childhood to adulthood. While parents cannot protect their teens from every risk they may encounter through these tumultuous years, their role as driving coach may prevent the tragedy and devastation that a motor vehicle crash too often brings to a family.
For more information on obtaining the Road Map, contact NETS at 888-221-0045 or visit the Web site at www.traffic safety.org.
Experts say practice can be the missing element in many teen drivers' training.
