
Cornhusker
Driving School Rollover Demo
(CLICK ON PHOTO FOR
DEMO)
Cornhusker
Driving School applauds your interest and concern with your teen's driving.
Completing our driver education program is a positive step toward helping
your teen become a more aware and responsible driver. We know your concern
as a nervous parent. Many parents fear, or fear for, the teenage driver...
and for good reason. Teen death by auto crashes is a major health problem
in our country. Often it receives too little attention and legislative
support compared to other health problems.
AUTOMOBILE
CRASHES ARE THE #1 KILLER OF YOUNG PEOPLE BETWEEN THE AGES OF 15 &
20. Over 6000 of our young men and women die every year in
traffic accidents. Over 500,000 teens are injured each year. This is
unacceptable. The cause of over 75% of these fatalities is DRIVER ERROR!
Costly and very avoidable errors such as driver inattention, inadequate
lookout, staying in your lane and speeding are the main culprits.
Experience
and attitude are two powerful deterrents to auto crashes. Some parents
and legislators believe that a 16 year old is too young to handle the
enormous responsibility of driving. Certain statistics support that
point of view. Putting the car keys in the hands of the young inexperienced
driver is an enormous responsibility.
You,
as a parent, can help your teen develop the right attitude and gain
the necessary experience to become a good driver. One way to help is
to place certain restrictions on your child's driving privileges. Some
ideas would be limiting the number of passengers, avoid listening to
the radio or tapes, and no use of the cell phone-- all of which serve
to create driver distraction and inattention. Keeping a short leash
on their driving will help as the teen becomes more experienced in driving.
Drive with them even after the license. Help them to avoid speeding,
tailgating, incomplete stops and failure to yield. These are behaviors
that all drivers can and should use to avoid accidents. Defensive driving
requires the driver to avoid the mistakes of other drivers. Driving
requires 100% total concentration to the driving task. Accidents can
be avoided!
Your
teen must realize and agree that having a drivers license and driving
a car are privileges. And privileges must be earned on a continuous
basis. Some ideas for loss of use of the car are the following: 1) Breaking
the law; 2) Abusing the car; 3) Poor grades in school-Good grades always
a must. 4) No one else can drive the car. 5) Never drive in a condition
that renders the teen less than 100% competent to drive the vehicle.
6) Never be a passenger in a car in which the driver has been drinking
or using other drugs. 7) Teach them to convince a drinking driver that
they cannot and should not drive the car.
Driving
the car will be exciting for your teen, but possibly stressful for you.
We hope that by working together on this huge responsibility, you and
your teen will both become better and safer drivers.
—
Dr. Patrick Venditte, Ed.D —
History
of Safety Belts in Cars
Corporate
attitude was that seat belts
implied cars were dangerous.
*At
the turn of the century seat belts were put in some cars to keep people
from bouncing out on rough roads.
*1903
Mr. Leveau of France devised a restraint system integrated in the car
seat with straps attached to the seat back.
*1920
Laps belts first used in race cars.
*1930 Doctors C.J. Strickland
and Claire L. Straith a plastic surgeon who treated people in automobile
crashes called for factory installed seat belts.
*1946-48
Dr. Straith presents data on crash injuries caused by automobiles. Automobile
engineers immediately recognized the value of safety belts in preventing
injuries.
*1953
American Medical Association recommends to Auto Manufactures that they
consider equipping all cars with safety belts.
*1954
Automobile Manufactures agree it would be unethical to equip all cars
with safety belts until it is factually known whether belts provide
increase protection. Sports Car Club of America mandated lap belts use
for competing drivers.
*1955
Ford and Chrysler provide optional lap belts.
*1957
First hearing on usefulness of seat belts in automobiles held in Washington
D.C.
*1959
Volvo installs front seat lap-shoulder belts as standard equipment.
*1960’s
Data provided by Cornell Laboratories and University of Michigan concluded
that lap belts reduce death and injuries by 30% and that shoulder belts
would prevent even more deaths.
*1962
Many states began mandating belt use for front seat passengers.
*1966
Rear seat belts offered in all US cars. Sports Car Club of America requires
shoulder belts competing drivers.
*1973
Federal Standards require 3 point lap shoulder belts.
It
took a long time to get safety belts in all new cars-longer even than
it took to get air bags.
Ejection
from the vehicle is one of the most injurious events that can happen
to a person in a crash.
In
fatal crashes in 2001, 75% of passenger occupants ejected from the vehicle
were killed. Seat belts help to protect occupants from ejection.