October 15-21 is National Teen Driver Safety Week. As the mom of two teenage boys – I am scared to death to allow them to drive. I know I’ll have to – eventually – but not before we can drill into their heads these safe driving practices even when we aren’t in the car with them.

6 in 10 teen crashes are caused by distracted driving. Fortunately, crashes are preventable and there are strategies and new technology that can be helpful to improve the safety of teen drivers.

These tips come from father and CEO of Klashwerks Russell Ure, who recently released Raven, a device dreamt up by Russell after his daughter drove 4 hours through a snowstorm with a dead phone and caused him MUCH grief before she finally arrived home safe.

You can see how it works in this 2 min video, official release with product capabilities here.

5 Tips to Safer Driving for Your Teen

Don’t rely on driver’s education alone. Driver’s ed is a great way to start your teenager on their driving journey, by allowing an experienced and certified driving coach to teach your teen the fundamentals. But this is just a start. It’s important for you, as their parent, to supervise practice driving as well. From empty parking lots to heavy traffic on the highway without forgetting night timedriving, practice is key in making sure your teen is a confident and safe on the road. In addition, Raven’s Driving Score feature can help coach your teen when you’re not around providing them with valuable reports of how well they’re driving and what they can continue to improve on.

Require constant seatbelt use. Seatbelts never go out of style, though your teen may think it’s “uncool” when driving with friends. But let’s get real, more than half of teens, aged 13-19 years, and adults, aged 20-44 years, who died in crashes in 2015 were unrestrained at the time of the accident. Remind your teen about the importance of wearing a seatbelt, and how it can save their life. Still not sure if your teenagers are buckled up? Check in with Raven’s live video and get the proof and extra peace of mind you need.

Don’t drive in a hurry.  By using connected car technology like Raven that ties in with navigation apps, you and your teen will both know what driving conditions to expect before they even hit the road. Stress or frustration often leads to risky behavior behind the wheel, so having a plan reduces that risk and gives both teen and parents a realistic idea of how long the trip should take. With the Raven app, not only can you track your teen’s ETA, but you can see real-time video of traffic and conditions of the road ahead and know right away when your teen safely makes it to their destination.

The danger of distracted driving. Multitasking in the driver’s seat is dangerous for everyone. With many teenagers’ need to always be in the know among their social circles, cellphone use while driving has escalated. Texting, on average, causes a loss of focus on the road for 4.6 seconds. Did you know you can drive the length of a football field in that time? A lot can happen during that time. Ask your teen to silence their phone, keep it in the back seat far from reach, and don’t distract your teen via checking in by texting or calling. You can check in with Raven and its real-time monitoring feature through the app dashboard, and at a glance, know if everything is okay.

Still have fun. With Snapchat and selfies being an ordinary part of an average teenager’s day, it is sometimes difficult for a teen to step away from it while on the road. If your teen wants to capture an exciting, strange, beautiful, or scary experience while on the road, Raven’s gesture recognition allows them to record and take photos directly with Raven’s cameras, without having to take their eyes off the road. Best part is, the video gets automatically uploaded to their phone’s media library, so it can be shared on all social media as soon as they’re done their drive, without putting anyone in danger.

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