Teenage drivers are thrown into a very dangerous learning situation when starting to drive. Alarming crash and death statistics confirm that younger drivers are greatly exposed. Certain dangerous scenarios repeatedly create risks for which young drivers are ill-equipped to respond while under pressure and with external variables outside of their control.
Many younger drivers quickly build a false sense of competency as they graduate from driver training, jump behind the wheel and successfully complete some easy and "routine" driving trips. Yet when confronted with a dangerous situation, younger drivers make poor reactionary decisions 80 to 90 percent of the time!
Ironically, about 80 percent of general aviation accidents are also attributed to error in judgment. In fact, a staggering 71 percent of these aviation crashes happen during portions of flight that together only add up to a small 10 percent of a flight's overall duration. Take-offs and landings in particular represent a very challenging time for pilots. Managing higher traffic congestion, numerous cockpit tasks, radio communications, and reconfiguring the aircraft force a pilot to really concentrate on everything that is happening around them. We call it situational awareness.
The Federal Aviation Administration and other aviation organizations have made great improvements in pilot education, safety training and licensing requirements to better prepare pilots for making improved safety-related decisions and thinking accurately under pressure. These same pilot skills are transferable and relevant to all drivers.
Any driver, especially a teenage driver, needs these same professional pilot skills to make improved decisions about avoiding or managing certain dangerous situations. After lengthy research into the causes of teenage driver deaths, John Loughry, author of Saving Our Teen Drivers and a licensed commercial pilot, has condensed and repackaged his 25+ years of pilot experience, knowledge and aviation training into a powerful book written to educate parents on these critical safety skills.
There are several books and classes available that teach driving rules, procedures, regulations and basic automobile operation. This is fine but only Saving Our Teen Drivers takes lessons and knowledge directly from the cockpit and educates young drivers on how to construct their own personal POP Zone defense strategy for any driving scenario.
Even a teenager exhibiting safe driving behavior is still very much at risk. Considering only the teenage driving years of 16-19, 60 percent of auto related deaths were drivers and 40 percent were passengers! Teens are still at great risk even when not driving.
The Saving Our Teen Drivers book covers the identification, recognition and avoidance of the 13 most vulnerable situations younger drivers will encounter:
- 13 pilot traits that successful pilots use during every flight and how they can increase driving safety
- The five key Saving Our Teen Drivers concepts
- The five younger driver DUI traps
- Risk exponentiation and how to stop it early
- The one simple variable that increases teenager driver from 80 to 90% and how to easily avoid it
- How teenagers who are not behind the wheel are still at risk and how to prevent injury
- The mandatory questions every teenage driver must continually ask themselves
- Characteristics and avoidance of dangerous drivers
- How to use a pilot's POP Zone defensive strategy for driving or being a passenger
- The number one mistake people make while driving at night and how to counter it
And much more! The five key Saving Our Teen Drivers concepts are opportunities for increased safety that pilots have been improving upon for years and they directly apply to drivers. This knowledge is not covered in standard driving material. Saving Our Teen Drivers will educate teenage drivers in how to make better decisions and help reduce the 80 to 90 percent decision error rate.
