WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2015
As your young drivers age clicks closer to 16, we all have a range of emotions over come us. You will Be happy that you no longer have to cart the kids around, sad that your kids are growing up way to fast, worried for their safety on the road, the list can go on and on. They will obviously be excited that they finally get to get behind the wheel and get their first sense of freedom. As an exciting time this is for them they have to be aware of the dangers on the road. Many parents will constantly try to beat in to their child's head the dangers of the road, what to look for, how to drive, how to be prepared; don't you think they have heard enough (or at least that is what they will think). Let's face it they will only listen to Mom and Dad so much (what do they know right?), maybe they need someone else's point of view.
Your young driver has a huge responsibility when they begin to drive, not only do they have your vehicle but they also are being covered under your insurance. What if "Little Johnny" is driving down the road and hits another car, how bad is my insurance going to go up? "Little Suzy" ran a stop sign and T-boned a woman who is now seriously hurt, will my insurance cover everything? My kids have friends riding in the car, what if they aid in causing an accident by distraction?
We will answer all these questions for you upon the issuance of their PA drivers license. Every young driver that comes through our doors has to have a sit down with Joe (agency principal) or his son JJ (branch manager) to have "the talk". No this is not about "the talk" of the birds and the bee's this is "the talk" of what we as insurance agents expect of our young drivers. We aid our insured parents in reinforcing the fact that driving is dangerous and what sorts of penalties come with a poor driving history. Before the talk begins your child will watch a 20 min video which interviews parents who had a son or daughter who was involved in an accident, it also outlines many interesting driving stats. We then get into the "meat & potatoes" of the conversation; being added onto an insurance policy is a privilege not a right parents have a large investment and quite a liability to allow their child to drive. An absolutely ZERO tolerance for drinking and driving, drugs, and using a cell phone while driving. Any DUI, Underage Alcohol (even if they weren't drinking), or drug offense your child will be instantly excluded from the policy and be forced with paying a premium for a sub-standard company with a higher premium. For the first 6 months a limit of passengers your child carries with them is 2, in accordance to PennDOT your child will have to be home by 11pm, and always wear a seat-belt! After all of this we have our young drivers sign a pledge of safe driving and understanding about our rules of the road.
Ultimately we have a little bit of tough love for our your drivers but its the tough love that keeps our your drivers safe. The last thing that we want is for one of our insured parents or anyone for that matter to get a phone call saying that their child has been seriously injured in an accident or the ultimate fear, death.