Accident prevention: The 100 deadliest days for teens | PEMCO

You already know that teens, phones, and inexperience combine to create a toxic cocktail of distracted driving. But an even greater danger may be sitting in your teen’s passenger seat. 

Yep, their goofball buddy with the big laugh. 

The National Safety Council (NSC) says having a young passenger in the car increases a teen driver’s fatal crash risk by 44%. A now-classic study from AAA used dashcam footage to analyze the moments before teen crashes and uncovered these top distractors: 15% of teen drivers engaged in loud conversations, 12% used their phones, and 11% looked at or fiddled with something in the car.  

As we enter the Memorial Day to Labor Day stretch that AAA has dubbed the “100 Deadliest Days” for teen drivers, it’s time to shift your love of prevention into high gear! That means coaching your teen on strategies to drive defensively. And PEMCO can help! We’re partnering with members to offer our free PEMCODOMETER™ My Driving Discount feature to help boost attentiveness and defensive driving skills among teen drivers. You could even save some money on insurance. More about that below. 

Why is summer so dangerous for teen drivers? 

You’d think our warmer months, with long daylight hours and mostly dry pavement, would be the safest for any driver. But those balmy months also bring unexpected challenges for young drivers. Seasonal events like prom, graduations, get-togethers with friends, and adventures on narrow rural roads all test the skills of new drivers.   

Teens are 17% more likely to be involved in a fatal crash during the 100 Deadliest Days than at other times of the year, according to AAA. That’s a scary bump when you consider that NSC data shows teens make up only 3.6% of drivers on the road yet account for 9.1% of all crashes and 6.1% of fatal crashes.   

How to help your teen practice prevention when it comes to the 100 deadliest days of driving

“Layer” strategies to keep your teen safe. Start with enforcing teen-driving laws (here’s a review of restrictions in Washington and Oregon), then offer a combination of rules and tools to make it easier for your teen to do the right thing: 

1. Limit teen passengers. State laws don’t allow young passengers (other than family) during the first six months of licensing. After that, the number jumps to three. Consider your own house rules to extend the ban or modify it to fit your teen’s situation. For example, you could limit teen passengers to specific, predictable trips like carpooling home from sports practice. Or, better yet, join a carpool where you share the driving tasks with other parents. That way, worn-out athletes can relax without having to focus on the road.  

2. Keep wireless devices turned off. State laws are on your side – no wireless devices, even hands-free, until age 18. Extend that to include your car’s infotainment systems. For example, insist teens program their navigation routes and set up music choices before leaving. 

3. Drive competent. That means your teen agrees to put down the keys whenever they can’t devote 100% of their attention to the road. No driving when tired, angry, crying, sick, stressed, distracted, or under the influence of any substance – whether that’s booze, marijuana, or even a sedating allergy medication.  
    
   Give your teen an easy way to make the safe choice: a no-questions-asked ride home. As a backup, create a teen rideshare account (like this one from Uber) that has extra safeguards for young passengers. Sadly, in a 2022 AAA teen survey, 82% of teens said their friends would risk driving impaired rather than calling for a ride for fear of getting in trouble. 

4. Limit night driving. Teen licensing laws vary slightly between Washington and Oregon, but the intent is clear: Night driving exposes inexperienced drivers to unnecessary risks and challenges. That ranges from difficulty spotting road hazards to sharing the road with more drowsy or impaired drivers. Consider both darkness and the clock when setting driving curfews. Twenty percent of teen driving fatalities happen between 9 p.m. and midnight, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. 

5. Wear a seatbelt – always. That even goes when riding in the backseat or in a rideshare.   

Utilize PEMCODOMETER to help encourage safe driving 

Nagging – “Slow down!” “Brake!” “Move over!” – gets you nowhere with your teen. But an impartial digital observer can say the things you can’t. And we have just the tool! 

For the past three years, PEMCO has offered members its free PEMCODOMETER My Driving Discount on the Go PEMCO app to get discounts on their insurance.  

And now, for the love of prevention, we’re encouraging parents to set up PEMCODOMETER as an additional tool for their teens. It works best when used with hands-on coaching. Spending just 30 minutes a week in the car with your teen can make a big difference. 

How PEMCODOMETER works 

Because PEMCODOMETER is part of the Go PEMCO app, there’s nothing to plug into your car. Just set it up on the phones of each driver in your household who wants to participate. 

The app silently runs in the background for 91 days using your smartphone’s GPS to monitor your car’s location and motion. It senses things like tapping on or moving the phone when you drive, excessive speeding, and making smooth starts and stops. It maps drives within the 91 day monitoring period and marks instances (like hard braking) where your driving could be even safer. PEMCODOMETER automatically stops monitoring after the 91st day. 

Every driver in your household who tries it gets a temporary discount when they sign up and extends through the monitoring period. And if, like thousands of members, you “score” high enough during those 91 days, you’ll get a personalized My Driving Discount, which earns drivers an average of 10% savings on their auto insurance. It’s not all or nothing. Drivers in your household qualify individually, meaning that even if someone doesn’t participate or score high enough, others can still get the discount. 

To get started, all you need is a pemco.com account, the Go PEMCO app for iOS or Android, and the GPS features already on your phone. Here are more details, FAQs, and quick videos to show how PEMCODOMETER works and how to set it up in the Go PEMCO app.  

We’re all in on prevention because we’re all in on you      

Using PEMCODOMETER is a great segue for parents to talk with their teens about safe driving. Some users have even said they’ve become aware of their own “lazy” driving habits that have crept in over time. That allowed them to learn with their teens and model good habits. 

We get it: Having a new driver in the house brings a mix of angst, excitement, and pride. We’re honored to offer a free tool to help you make this milestone a positive, safe experience. If you have questions about PEMCODOMETER, let us know at 1-800-GO-PEMCO or call your local PEMCO agent. We’re all in on prevention because we’re all in on you!