Win a $500 College Savings Bond for Your Teen Driver!

Plus a copy of the Safe Teen Driver Guide valued at $59 at no cost just for taking a consumer survey.

Hi Everyone,

As you may know, I specialize in helping families with teen drivers get through this trying time as parents. For the last few years, I have committed myself to helping keep teen drivers safe.

Recently, I co-authored a manual to help parents teach their teens the most important driving skills and I want as many parents as possible get their hands on this valuable tool- The Safe Teen Driver Guide. The only thing I ask is that you take a few minutes to complete a short on-line survey.

As a family protection specialist, it is important for me to understand the concerns of parents and your feedback will help me help more parents most effectively. So, please take a few moments and complete the survey by visiting www.teendriverinsurance.com/survey. You will automatically be entered in the drawing for a $500 college savings bond and I’ll send you a free copy of the Safe Teen Driver Guide.

The deadline for drawing is March 31st. You can only register once and it is only open to parents of teenagers 15-19.

Thanks for your time and I wish you and your family a happy and safe New Year!

16 Step Home Study Teen Driving Course Offered at No Cost to Parents

Car accidents are the leading cause of severe injuries and death among teenagers all across the U.S. and inexperience is the leading factor in these accidents. “New drivers just don’t know how to react to dangerous situations that, many times, they get themselves into,” says Ret. Master Police Officer James Poer who investigated car accidents for 30 years. “Education and most importantly, experience, is critical to helping kids learn how to avoid dangerous situations and how to react when they encounter dangerous situations.”

Driving school experts recommend 100 hours of behind the wheel experience before a teen drives unsupervised. Unfortunately, driving schools can’t provide this amount of experience. Depending on the state, schools are only required to give 4 to 6 hours of driving practice and with so many students in a class, schools simply cannot provide adequate experience. This places the responsibility on the parents.

One way to make the most of this time is to use a home study driving course. By following a structured lesson plan, parents can teach their teens the most important skills to driving safely and make the needed driving time most effective. The Society of Family Insurance Specialists (SFIS) has released a 16 step home study course, The Safe Teen Driver Guide, that provides parents a lesson plan and practice exercises to help them accomplish this important goal. Local licensed insurance agent and family protection specialist, Derek LaFargue of Metro Insurance in Springdale, helped co-author this guide along with Officer Poer and a certified driving school instructor.

For the last few years, LaFargue has been on a mission to help parents keep their teen drivers safe. His agency offers many tools including GPS teen driver monitoring systems, “How’s My Driving?” bumper stickers, Parent/ Teen Driver Contract, 101 Safety Tips for Teen Drivers and much more. “The Safe Teen Driver Guide is one tool that I have had a great response from,” says LaFargue. “Almost every parent that has received it is grateful for having such a great tool to help them teach their teen to drive.”

This guide is now available at no cost to Northwest Arkansas area parents simply by completing a brief on-line survey. The SFIS is interested in the concerns of parents of teen drivers and is conducting a marketing survey offering the guide and a chance to win a $500 college savings bond as a reward for completing the survey.

Parents can enter the drawing for the savings bond and get a copy of the Safe Teen Driver Guide valued at $59 by taking the survey at www.teendriverinsurance.com/survey .

Proposed New Teen Safety Program Offered to Parents

The Society of Family Insurance Specialist is working on a project that we believe can make a difference in reducing the dangerous driving that causes most teen driver accidents and fatalities.

Immaturity is attributed to many of the mistakes teens make. Talking on cell phones, distractions in the car, peer pressure to push the limits, and just plain being careless most often leads to accidents.

The project we are proposing and have support to fund sounds like it can help, but we need to know what parents like you think of the program and whether you would consider it worthwhile to participate.

Here's how it will work...

You would get a bumper sticker (11 X 3.5) that is similar to the bumper sticker you often see on commercial vehicles (How's my driving?) and place it on your teen driver's car. There will be a toll-free number and a unique code printed on the sticker.

If your teen drives dangerously, and if someone calls the toll-free number to report, you will be notified of the incident. The person reporting the incident will have to describe the vehicle, time and place, and the code on the bumper sticker. This information will be handled by a third party and will only be disclosed to you by e-mail. The insurance company will never have access to this information.

Most likely, the reports will be minimal but the real benefit is that if your teen driver knows that there is a chance of being reported, the likelihood of making a mistake should be drastically reduced.

So, would you mind taking just a minute to answer 7 questions and let our organization know what you think?

Click Here to Take Our Survey

This survey is completely anonymous. So, please feel free to share your honest thoughts on this program.

Thanks for your time!

Derek LaFargue

PS As I mentioned, this program will be funded 100%. There will be no cost to you. But, there is a significant expense in creating this program and we need to make sure that this would be something that parents find valuable. If we get enough positive response, we’ll make it happen. Thanks again for your help!

IIHS Proposes Driving Age Increase to 17

By Derek LaFargue, Family and Teen Driver Protection Specialist

The Insurance Institute of Highway Safety announced today their proposal to increase the minimum driving age in all states in the US to age 17. Their reasons are solid and should help reduce the number of accidents involving teenagers.

The Graduated Drivers License program that almost every state has adopted has proven to work. Numbers of teen driver accidents and fatalities have decreased every year since its inception. The GDL program basically adds more supervised driving experience for teens and restricts them from driving during the times when risk is highest. However, more than 5,000 teens are killed in car accidents every year!

Although teens and many parents may not like this change, parents should understand that there are two primary reasons why 16 year olds are most likely to get into accidents- inexperience and immaturity. Parents can help their child get the experience by spending time supervising their teen behind the wheel.

Maturity, on the other hand, can only come with age. The GDL program gives the teen more time for experience but it doesn’t address the problem of immaturity. 16 year olds have the highest crash rate and fatalities of any age group and it’s largely due to peer pressure and not realizing the dangers they face.

16 year olds tend to think they are invincible behind the wheel and when other teens in their car urge them to drive fast, they cave into such pressures much easier.

Whether this proposal is passed in Arkansas or not, there are steps parents can take to reduce the likelihood of their child causing an accident.

Get a home study driving course and spend as much time possible teaching your teen the skills needed to drive safely.

Delay the time before your teen gets a full license. This will help your teen mature and give you more time to supervise your teen’s driving. This will also show how serious you are about their safety.

Get a GPS Teen Monitoring System. This will instantly reduce the likelihood of your teen driving dangerously. If your teen knows that you’ll be alerted, they will be less tempted to speed or break any other rules that you’ve set forth.

Talk to your teen about the dangers. Communication is probably the most effective way to make your teen a safer driver. Share the statistics and the most common mistakes teens make. Then get a contract in writing that states that your teen understands the dangers and will follow the rules you have set forth. You can download a free parent/teen driver contract by clicking here: http://www.teendriverinsurance.com/ar-metro-res.html

Please feel to comment on this blog or to send me your thoughts to derek@metroinsuranceinc.com

Inexperience Can Lead to Tragedy

Recently, I had the privilege to host an interview with a man who has a very riveting story to share. Although his story was one that we all hope to never experience, he has turned a tragic event into a mission to help others prevent the same happening to them.

You see, Chris Fore, as an adolescent was just beginning to move into a new chapter in his life. He was the typical American high school student who had the world ahead of him… an athlete with a promising future… raised with good moral values and very active in his church. He had the world in front of him and it looked brighter than ever.

Then one night everything changed.

Chris was just 16 when he experienced an event so terrible, that it would forever change the course of his future. But worse, it would ultimately end the future of his good friend.

One night after bible study, Chris and his friends decided to drive over to another friend’s house to finish the evening playing basketball. Chris’s friend, who was driving, had just gotten his driver’s license earlier that day, and as they were driving through rural neighborhoods with many somewhat blind driveways, he caved in to peer pressure and pushed his vehicle beyond a safe speed.

His inexperience as a driver led to an accident that ended his life and left a memory with those that survived the crash that would last for as long as they lived.

Chris survived the car crash to share the story to hopefully, make teens realize how dangerous driving really is. Chris spent the next several months in a wheel chair and his aspirations of becoming a star athlete diminished.

Today, Chris is a high school football coach where every day he preaches his message of teen driver safety. He speaks on this subject every opportunity he gets and has turned this tragedy into a lifelong mission of preventing the same happening to those he influences.

Again, I had the privilege to speak with Chris and I would like to help him share his story with you… in his own words. If you would like a free copy of my interview with Chris, please send me an e-mail at contact@metroinsuranceinc.com or call my office at 479-751-5555.

Derek LaFargue

PS Peer pressure, inexperience, and speeding are the leading causes of teenage deaths in our country. There are steps that you can take to possibly prevent or at least, reduce the likelihood of this happening to your family. I would like to help you. Please let me know if I can.

Tears for My Friends

Debbye, a friend of mine shared this with me and I thought I should pass this on to hopefully, help others.

Tears for My Friends
By Debbye Butler

I have a friend named Jeannette. She had a daughter and a son, until October 1986. Her daughter tested the odds of the effects of alcohol on her motor skills and judgment versus her knowledge about the roads with which she was so familiar.

The alcohol won.

Cindy never saw her 21st birthday. Jeannette, however, has to live through every one of her daughter’s candles-and-cake days — wondering what her daughter would look like now and what she would be doing with her promising life.

I have another buddy. His name is Bill. He is a devoted family man, and until a dreaded October night in 1992, he had two sons and a daughter. Now he has one son, one daughter, and 17 years of memories of a child who will never grow older. Bill, too, had to live the worst parental nightmare possible — a tired teenager with a set of car keys, a can of beer, and an invincible attitude on a late weekend night.

Both of my friends are incredibly loving people and responsible parents. They were looking forward to graduations, a son- or daughter-in-law, and grandchildren. But they have been cheated out of some of the best and most meaningful adventures in life, and nothing or no one can change that cruel, crushing reality.

Maybe you know someone who has lost a son or daughter because of this deadly combination. Maybe it’s a neighbor. Maybe it’s a friend. Maybe it’s someone in your own family. Maybe the children’s deaths were caused by another person who was driving while intoxicated.

It’s hard for me to believe I would ever have personally known one family — much less two — that would have to live through this gnawing, once-it-happens-it-never-goes-away pain. And it’s even more difficult to know what to say to them. Hugs help. But they’ll never replace the hugs from the children who are gone because of alcohol.

When Bill was saying goodbye to his son during the funeral, he did the most loving, courageous thing that any parent could do in a situation like this. With a lump in his throat that must have felt like the size of a softball, he looked out at the stunned young faces of his son’s high school friends. He said he never wanted to have to come to a funeral for this reason again. He said, “Don’t drink and drive.”

Bill told me later he hoped he didn’t sound like he was preaching. Well … I hope he did. I hope everyone listened. And I hope everyone remembers.

© Debbye Butler. Used with author’s permission. May not be reproduced in any fashion without author’s express permission. Debbye Butler is a freelance writer based in Indianapolis, Ind.

Why Are Insurance Rates for Teens So High?

As an insurance agent, this is probably one of the most frustrating questions I get from parents who are adding their teen to their car insurance. I understand this frustration and after I explain the reasons, they usually respond with “But, my teen is a good driver…”

That may be true and you’ve probably spent countless hours helping your teen become a safer driver. If you have, then you should be glad that the chances of your teen getting into an accident will be less likely than most teens on the road. But let me emphasize… Less Likely Than Other Teens… not experienced drivers.

It takes thousands of hours behind the wheel to get the experience to avoid accidents and become the safest of drivers. And this can take years. Here’s a statistic to prove this point.

The crash rate for 16 year olds is nearly 3 times higher than 19 years and nearly 6 times higher than drivers 20 to 24 years old.

Unfortunately, you are going to have to pay high rates for your teen to drive. But, you can take steps to avoid paying the highest rates and keep them down.

Step One- Use an insurance agent that specializes in insuring teen drivers. Family Insurance Specialists represent companies that offer good rates but most importantly offer quality insurance protection that can help you avoid paying out of your own pocket for an accident if your teen causes an accident.

Step Two- Make sure you are getting every discount you deserve. Available discounts may include safe driver, claims-free, good grades, multiple policies with the same company, and in some states you can qualify for a lower rate by keeping a good credit rating.

Step Three- Buy a safe, older, lower profile vehicle for your teen to drive. Make sure it has airbags and anti-lock brakes and is not considered a dangerous vehicle. Your Family Insurance Specialist can help you decide which vehicles are least expensive to insure.

Step Four- Increase your deductibles or drop the collision on older vehicles. If your teen is driving an older, less expensive car, you can “self insure” the car. That means of course, if something happens, you’ll have to pay for the damages to your car, but it can save you a lot of money- nearly 1/3 to 1/2!

Step Five- Get a Teen Driver Monitoring Device installed in your teen’s car. Some insurance companies offer special discounts for these systems. The greatest advantage of these systems is that this will most likely prevent your teen from speeding. Speeding tickets can greatly increase your insurance rates and jeopardize your insurance coverage. Insurance companies know that if a teen driver gets a speeding ticket, the likelihood of an accident in the near future is great. You could get cancelled and it may be more difficult to get another insurance company to pick you up.

To learn more about how you can get the right protection for your teen driver, find out other ways you can save on your car insurance, and keep your teen driver safe visit my website at www.teendriverinsurance.com/metro or call my office at 479-751-5555.