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05
Feb

Inexperience Can Lead to Tragedy

Recently, I had the privilege to host an interview with a man who has a very riveting story to share. Although his story was one that we all hope to never  experience, he has turned a tragic event into a mission to help others prevent the same happening to them.

You see, Chris Fore, as an adolescent was just beginning to move into a new chapter in his life. He was the typical American high school student who had the world ahead of him… an athlete with a promising future…  raised with good moral values and very active in his church. He had the world in front of him and it looked brighter than ever.

Then one night everything changed.

Chris was just 16 when he experienced an event so terrible, that it would forever change the course of his future. But worse, it would ultimately end the future of his good friend.

One night after bible study, Chris and his friends decided to drive over to another friend’s house to finish the evening playing basketball.  Chris’s friend, who was driving, had just gotten his driver’s license earlier that day, and as they were driving through rural neighborhoods with many somewhat blind driveways, he caved in to peer pressure and pushed his vehicle beyond a safe speed.

His inexperience as a driver led to an accident that ended his life and left a memory with those that survived the crash that would last for as long as they lived.

Chris survived the car crash to share the story to hopefully, make teens realize how dangerous driving really is. Chris spent the next several months in a wheel chair and his aspirations of becoming a star athlete diminished.

Today, Chris is a high school football coach where every day he preaches his message of teen driver safety. He speaks on this subject every opportunity he gets and has turned this tragedy into a lifelong mission of preventing the same happening to those he influences.

Again, I had the privilege to speak with Chris and I would like to help him share his story with you… in his own words.  If you would like a free copy of my interview with Chris, please send me an e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call my office at 336-765-1231.

Wake Clinard

PS Peer pressure, inexperience, and speeding are the leading causes of teenage deaths in our country. There are steps that you can take to possibly prevent or at least, reduce the likelihood of this happening to your family. I would like to help you. Please let me know if I can.

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09
Jan

After School Hours Are Dangerous For Teen Drivers

If you are like me, you have always been concerned about your teen driver children when they head out on the road at night. And you are right to be worried about them driving at night. That is a very dangerous time. But a recent study shows that the time right after school is also are very high risk time for teen drivers.

This study by AAA indicates that weekday afternoon driving time is just as dangerous for teens as night driving. The researchers studied the number of fatal crashes involving teens between 2002 and 2005. They found that 16 and 17 years olds were involved in almost as many fatal crashes between 3 and 5 pm on weekdays as they were on Friday and Saturday nights between 9 pm and 2 am. There were 1100 weekday fatal accidents and 1237 weekend evening fatal accidents.

So what can you as a parent do about this?

Well, here are several suggestions:
1. Establish some specific driving rules with your teen. Be consistent in enforcing both the rules and the consequences when the rules are broken.
Impose an absolute ban on cell phone use while your teen is driving. Don’t call them yourself when you know that they are driving.
Require that your teen use a seatbelt any and every time they are traveling in any vehicle whether as a driver or a passenger. You must do the same to reinforce the importance of this.
Don’t allow your teen driver to carry passengers during the first 3 months or more of driving. Let them get used to being out there on their own before they add the distractions of passengers.
Don’t permit your teen to ride with other teen drivers. I know this will be a hard sell in these times of high gas prices but until you know just how safe the other teen driver is, you really should not permit your child to ride with him or her.
Make your rules known to other adults in your teen’s life. This can help provide an extra set of eyes when you are not around.
Install a GPS monitoring system in your child’s car. When they know that you are watching all of the time, their driving habits will be safer.

To get more safety tips and to find out how you can get a GPS tracking system installed in your child’s car for free, visit my web site at www.TeenDriverInsurance.com/Clinard