Due to a lack of experience and being easily distracted, fatalities from motor vehicle accidents are high among teen drivers. In fact, motor vehicle accidents are among the leading cause of death for teenagers. To try and combat this and keep other drivers on the roadways safe, many parents are starting to install monitoring devices in their teens' vehicles.
One of these types of devices is the dashboard camera. This camera alerts parents to any driving behaviors considered dangerous, such as speeding. The Drivecam company views the driving behaviors and lets the parents know how the teen is driving. This alerts parents to unsafe driving behaviors and provides safer driving information to hopefully correct any issues.
This type of monitoring not only alerts parents to the dangers, but can also deter teens from risky driving. The thought is that if teens know their driving is being monitored they will try and be safer drivers.
Outside of having the dashboard camera, some parents have also taken to bumper stickers to encourage safe driving. The bumper stickers simply say “How's My Driving” with a phone number to let others text the teen's parents. For example, let's say a teen cuts-off another driver and nearly causes an accident. The driver who was cut-off could then text the number on the bumper sticker to report the incident to the teen's parents.
The hope is that these types of monitoring will lead to safer driving and prevent accidents.
As a Tennessee driver, what do you think about monitoring teen driving? Should this be something all parents should do? Should it be mandatory?