AAA Oklahoma has Help for Parents Who are Teaching their Teens to Drive

Oct. 12, 2011 – In recognition of Teen Driver Safety Week, Oct. 16-22, AAA Oklahoma reminds parents that AAA’s widely-used parent-taught driver’s education program gives parents every tool they need to teach their teen how to drive. The course, called Take the Wheel, includes both at-home and in-car instructional materials.

“With the demise of high school driver’s education across Oklahoma, high quality driver’s ed. materials are hard to find,” said Chuck Mai, spokesman for AAA Oklahoma. “We often get calls from parents who ask us how they can prepare their teens to survive the many risks teens face on the road. This parent-taught program fills a real need – plus because it is certified by the Oklahoma Dept. of Public Safety, it qualifies as bona-fide driver’s ed. under the state’s Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) law and allows teens to qualify for standard driver’s ed. discounts offered by most auto insurance companies.”

Motor vehicle crashes are still the leading cause of death for teenagers in the United States. More than 730,000 young drivers ages 15 to 18 were involved in police-reported crashes in 2009. In these crashes, 280,000 were injured and 2,805 were killed.

In Oklahoma in 2008, there were 39 teenage drivers ages 16 or 17 killed in traffic crashes in Oklahoma, down from a high of 75 killed in 2000. State safety officials attribute the decline in teen fatalities to Oklahoma’s strong GDL law that gradually phases-in driving privileges as teens gain experience behind the wheel.

“The loss of these young lives is tragic but what is especially heart-breaking is the fact that most traffic crashes are preventable,” said Mai. “Teens have to come to grips with the fact that it can happen to them and that they need to do all they can to reduce distractions in the vehicle, to always wear seat belts and to be defensive drivers. A low-cost parent-involved program such as Take the Wheel can be a tremendous help.”

For more information about Take the Wheel, call (918) 748-1071 or (800) 222-2582, or visit www.AAATakeTheWheel.com. The kit can also be purchased at any of AAA’s 42 offices across Oklahoma.

A not-for-profit organization, AAA Oklahoma serves its 354,000 members across Oklahoma with emergency help on the road, auto travel assistance and a wide range of personal insurance, travel, financial and automotive services through its 42 retail branches, regional operations center and on www.AAA.com.