Teen Driver - Ed Cunicelli, courtesy The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
How to prevent serious brain injury in crashes
Dr. Durbin, explaining some of the findings from the report (click here to see the YouTube video), highlights three important measures that can help prevent traumatic brain injuries in teen crashes.
The first line of defense, according to Dr. Durbin, is to try to prevent vehicle crashes from occurring in the first place. That’s where Graduated Driver Licensing laws attempt to keep teens out of situations that they’re not quite ready for.
Since we know that sometimes crashes do occur, the second line of defense against serious brain injury to teens is for teens to be wearing their seat belts at all times.
Even in that case, sometimes crashes with resulting injuries occur. The third line of defense at this point is aggressive acute care at an appropriate trauma center hospital and effective rehabilitation care to give these injured teens their best chance possible at reintegrating themselves into life.
What parents can do
As parents, our roles are to keep our children as safe as possible, including when they approach driving age and begin that all-important first step toward independence. Dr. Durbin points to four key areas where parents can make a difference in helping to keep their teens safe behind the wheel and as passengers when other teens are driving.
The full report, Miles to go: Monitoring Progress in Teen Driver Safety (2012), can be downloaded here in PDF format.