Supervise Your Licensed Teen With High-Tech and Common Sense

"Trust, but verify" ~ Damon Runyon

James Winfield, President and CEO of DriveHomeSafe.com, discovered he had a problem with his children soon after they earned their driver's licenses:

"Within weeks after my new teen drivers were driving solo, I realized they knew enough about driving to be a hazard to themselves (and others)...

Technically, they knew how to drive an automobile. ( I made sure of that).On the surface, they appeared to be able drivers. They could drive an automobile as well at night as they could in daylight. Our new teen drivers could do everything fundamentally necessary or legal to drive an automobile.

What they didn't have and desperately needed was experience and good judgment, which time and maturity could only provide...They get into situations, and do things operating an automobile outside their range of skill and experience to handle...Speeding, and driving recklessly are two misjudgments new drivers do."

Although I do not agree that reckless driving is merely a matter of "judgement", I heartily approve of the steps he took to correct the problem. This is what he did:


1. Negotiated a Teen Driving Contract: The Winfield Family established a basis of mutual agreement and understanding.


2. Eliminated distractions that got in the way of solving the problem of speeding by temporarily stripping the car of its stereo system.


3. Confronted peer pressure issues and circumstances.


4. Installed an easy-to-use Electronic Monitoring Unit to know if the automobile is speeding or driven recklessly.


5. Established geographic boundaries which expanded as the teens' experience grew.


6. Drove in separate automobiles when going to the same destination - teen drivers in one, adults in the other. His kids liked this arrangement. It fed into their need for independence. However, Winfield and his wife did it to gauge how their teen drivers really drove when they didn't have the parents in the same automobile with them.


7. Refused to take Speeding Tickets or Moving Violations lightly.


8. Put responsibility on their teen drivers to financially pay the consequences of their poor driving behavior. Winfield's kids paid for their automobile insurance. The parents paid the monthly car payments. When the teens messed up by driving in ways that caused their insurance rates to increase, they felt it financially. When their insurance premium payment rate decreased due to responsible driving, they benefited.

Winfield reports that this combination of tactics was highly successful and that it forced his teenagers to drive correctly.

Also Winfield is really sold on electronic monitoring devices. There is one system that made the news recently which I find quite interesting. It's called DriveCam.

DriveCam's exception-based video event recorder is mounted on the windshield behind the rear-view mirror and captures sights and sounds inside and outside the vehicle. G-forces (e.g. hard braking, swerving, collision, etc.) cause the recorder to save the 10 seconds immediately before and after the triggered event. Saved events are downloaded, analyzed and assigned a risk score to coach drivers, improve driving behavior and figure out who is to blame in collisions.

The system reminds me of fighter plane gun-cameras. Check out the video clips at the above link. The diver in this clip is a real prize!

I think Mr. Winfield is on to something. I believe his tactics when taken together get the job done. The mission being to keep your teen driver alive.

Here's a final word from James Winfield:

"If it bothers you that your teen driver may cry invasion of privacy, get over it and don't let it stop you. Preventing an automobile accident is what parenting is about. Bottom line, this is not a trust issue, it's about protecting your teen driver from misjudgments teens too often make when driving."

Well said, sir! Well done, sir!