Post Date January 2, 2014 – New Jersey Teen Drivers are under careful watch by NJ Law Enforcement. The number one cause of death for New Jersey teens is not a disease, illness and not suicide.  The number one cause is detracted New Jersey teen drivers. The New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety wants to help raise awareness on the huge risks that all New Jersey teen drivers faces each time they drive on New Jersey’s streets and highways.

New Jersey Teen Drivers need to understand distracted driving

Though New Jersey has one of the most effective and progressive driving laws for New Jersey teen drivers, Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa sees it to be important to equip New Jersey Teen Drivers with the knowledge on driving with an emphasize on safe driving habits.

NJ auto accidents last year caused eighteen deaths among New Jersey teen drivers. This statistic however is quite better than over a decade ago when over 40 New Jersey teen drivers were recorded. But even with this improvement, NJ law enforcement and officials believe that distracted teen drivers will continue. New Jersey Teen Drivers are most likely to still use cellphones while driving.  This practice has become the #1 distraction among all drivers today.

To raise awareness against distracted driving, NJ Division of Highway Traffic Safety has developed a program called “Share The Keys.” which will help both teens and their parents regarding safe driving.

The program will provide the basic understanding on the Graduated Driver License (GDL) system. This will teach parents to be good role model to their teens. This will also encourage the enforcing of GDL at home. It would call for an increase in the time parents spend driving with their kids.  In addition, the program will also call upon parents to control the keys by establishing a verbal contract with their kids when they the use the car.