Parents Are The Key : To Teen Driver Safety

Letting my oldest child drive a car has to be the single hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life, as a mom it is gut wrenching to see your babies grow up and get behind the wheel. But as an ER nurse it is terrifying to know the statistics that are out there're concerning teen drivers. The what if's run thru your head all the time. So what can you do as a parent?
Get yourself informed and stay informed! Education is the key to the prevention of injury. Teach your teen how to respect the road, the car, the cell phone and other motorists on the road. No respect for those things.....no keys at my house. Keep the conversation going consistently and daily.
Learning to drive is often considered a rite of passage for teenagers. But with the reward of being a new driver comes real risk. Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teens in the United States, taking the lives of eight teens a day. CDC's Injury Center is committed to preventing teen crashes and related deaths and injuries.

According to a CDC study, Drivers aged 16 or 17 years involved in fatal crashes—United States, 2004–2008 [PDF - 1.92 MB], published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), the annual number of 16- and 17-year-old drivers involved in fatal crashes decreased by 36% from 2004 to 2008. The study states that graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws, or teen driving laws, that exist in 49 states can be credited at least in part for the reduction in death rates. These laws limit driving under high risk conditions for newly-licensed drivers, such as driving at night and transporting other teen passengers.

However, since one out of every three teen deaths is the result of a motor vehicle crash, further reductions in teen crashes and related injuries are essential. CDC's new "Parents Are the Key" campaign and "Policy Impact: Teen Driver Safety" issue brief can help parents, policymakers, and others take steps to save young lives.

"Parents Are the Key" Campaign Launched Nationally

As a parent, you have the greatest influence over your teen's behavior. In fact, leading experts believe parents play a key role in preventing teen car crashes and deaths. Take the first step: Talk with your teen about staying safe behind the wheel. Then, keep the conversation going. You can steer your teen in the right direction, and "Parents Are the Key" has proven steps that can help.

CDC developed the "Parents Are the Key" campaign to help inform parents across the nation about the key role they can—and should—play in protecting their teen drivers. Individuals and groups can use the "Parents Are the Key" campaign materials to help parents learn about the most dangerous driving situations for their young driver and how to avoid them. All of the campaign materials—including a parent-teen safe driving agreement, posters, fact sheets, video, social media tools, implementation guide, and more—are available free of charge atwww.cdc.gov/parentsarethekey.

Policy Impact Brief Focuses on Teen Driver Safety

Policy Impact: Teen Driver Safety is the first in a new series of issue briefs highlighting key public health issues and important, science-based policy actions that can be taken to address them. In a simple, at-a-glance format, this new brief features critical information on the tremendous toll that crashes among teen drivers take, as well as CDC's recommendations for improving new driver safety. Highlights include 

By making these new resources available, CDC aims to provide parents, policymakers, and others with proven information on how to help teen drivers live to their full potential.

More Information

• MMWR: Drivers aged 16 or 17 years involved in fatal crashes—United States, 2004–2008 [PDF - 1.92 MB]
• Parents Are the Key: Campaign for Safe Teen Driving
• 
  Policy Impact: Teen Driver Safety
  
• Facts and Resources about Teen Drivers
• Protect the Ones You Love: Road Traffic Injuries
• Parents Are the Key Facebook Page
• CDC TV Video: "Parents Are the Key to Safe Teen Drivers"

Credit to: CDC works 24/7 saving lives and protecting people from health threats to have a more secure nation. A US federal agency, CDC helps make the healthy choice the easy choice by putting science and prevention into action. CDC works to help people live longer, healthier and more productive lives.

Stay safe and drive smart today!

An Experiment or Death by Strangulation

Another report about our deadly friend The choking game, still deadly, still here, not a trend, so get educated and stay educated on what you might be doing to your body.

credit:(dailyRx)

Reports, from the US and Canada, show that adolescents are experimenting with the ‘choking game’. Creating awareness of brain damage and accidental death may curb an adolescents interest.

It appears the choking game has been spreading across the nation for a few years.

A recent study assessed the choking game in Oregon’s eight-grade population. Researchers suggested spreading awareness of the risks and dangers to put an end to it.

Talk to your kids about choking risks.
Kenneth D. Rosenberg, MD, MPH, Robert J. Nystrom, MA, and Sarah K. Ramowski, MSW, from the Oregon Health Authority of the Public Health Division, teamed up with Julie Gilchrist, MD, and Nigel R. Chaumeton, PhD, from the Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to look at the risks involved when eight-graders play the choking game.

The choking game is pretty simple. An individual or a group cuts off the blood flow to the brain or induces hyperventilation to generate a high.

The problems with the choking game are twofold: loss of oxygen to the brain kills brain cells, and accidental death from loss of oxygen or asphyxiation.

Oregon isn’t the only place where adolescents participate in the choking game. A recent study looked at accidental death from the choking game in Canada, while another investigated the prevalence of the choking game in Texas.

The Oregon Health Authority gathered data from 2009 on 5,348 eighth-graders. To get a full picture, the team asked about the prevalence and frequency of the individual’s choking game experience and, “included questions about physical and mental health, gambling, sexual activity, nutrition, physical activity/body image, exposure to violence, and substance use.”

Only 6.1 percent of both male and female eight-graders reported having ever participated in the choking game. Of those participants 64 percent had played more than once and 26.6 percent had played more than five times.

The research team found, “Among Oregon eight-graders surveyed, greater than 6% had ever participated in the choking game. Participation was linked to poor nutrition and gambling among females, exposure to violence among males, and sexual activity and substance use among both genders.”

Authors conclude, “The results of this study reveal that choking game participation clusters with other risk behaviors and is not an activity, among those studies, that is more likely to be found among high-achieving, low-risk-taking youth.”

Authors recommend awareness and intervention from parents, teachers and health care professionals to prevent or stop this behavior.

This study was published in the journal Pediatrics, May 2012. No external funding was provided and no conflicts of interest were disclosed.

More information and education here: www.ed4ed4all.com
Our team of educators and specialists in this area will be glad to help you, email me anytime if you know of someone that needs help or has questions about the choking game, our organization is also available for speaking engagements at schools, churches, clubs, etc. email me here ernursescare@charter.net

Leslie