Driving With Friends – Know The Risks

For many young people, passing their driving test is a source of celebration – finally earning liberation from the monotony of public transport and constant lifts from friends and other family members, and being allowed your freedom on the roads at long last. And so, to celebrate this, many teenagers will pick up their friends and go driving as a novel new means of exploring the world.

However, studies have shown that teenagers with friends in the car are up to four times as likely to be involved in a crash than their adult counterparts. It seems that many youngsters that are in their early driving careers are still fatally unaware of the dramatic effect having their peers in the car will have on their driving ability, without even knowing it.

It has been proven that teenagers with their friends in the car pay as much as 50% less attention to the roads when driving with acquaintances, when compared to driving alone or with family members. Whether it is due to bickering over which music to play in your new car, back-seat drivers giving instructions to you or arguing that they deserved the “shotgun” seat, or shouting Inbetweeners-style obscenities out of the window, it is proven that your motoring skills are drastically impaired with friends around you. Also be aware that whilst you may be the designated driver chauffeuring your comrades to the pub, this also makes you more likely to come under peer pressure to drink and drive – which goes without saying as being illegal.

The camaraderie of enjoying your primary driving experiences with your closest friends may seem like a fun and exciting new world, but do remember that it can also be a dangerous one if you are not paying full attention.

Safe driving from Britannia!

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